TEMPE, Ariz. - Drug Enforcement Agency agents arrested a Tempe naturopathic doctor and her mother after agents found their clinic issues prescriptions in excess of 1.6 million dosage units, 85 percent of which were opioids.
Jelina Ip and Alane Ip, owners of Ava Pain Management, over prescribed Schedule II controlled substances including oxycodone and morphine, the DEA says.
The DEA began investigating the clinic in 2017, when it was named White Cranes Medical Center. A June 2018 search warrant revealed the Ips were living at the clinic and the DEA served them an Immediate Suspension Order to prevent them from prescribing controlled substances.
After analyzing 18 months of prescriptions by the clinic, the DEA found evidence the Ips were overprescribing.
“Medical doctors who abuse their prescribing privileges betray the communities they are supposed to protect, feed the opioid epidemic currently devastating the country and potentially destroy families,” Doug Coleman, Special Agent in Charge of DEA in Arizona, said in a release. “The DEA and our law enforcement partners are committed to the identification of these rogue practitioners and bringing them to face justice in Arizona and throughout the nation.”
The Ips now face dozens of charges including fraud, illegal administration of a narcotic, illegal conducting an enterprise and more.
