Federal authorities have charged more than 30 medical professionals in Tennessee with illegally prescribing and distributing millions of prescription painkillers, many of which contained opioids.
U.S. Attorneys Michael Dunavant in Memphis and Don Cochran in Nashville held separate news conferences Thursday detailing the federal charges brought against doctors and nurse practitioners.
The charges are the result of a sweeping investigation by the federal Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force, launched last year by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Dunavant says 16 medical professionals have been charged with illegally distributing opioids in west Tennessee. Cochran says nine were charged in middle Tennessee. Another eight medical professionals were charged in the Knoxville-based Eastern District of Tennessee.
Those charged include a doctor who prescribed a painkiller to a pregnant woman who later died.