Two South Jersey docs overprescribing drugs, state ME Board claims

A Red Bank podiatrist and a psychiatrist in Cherry Hill had disciplinary action filed against them by the state Board of Medical Examiners for allegedly prescribing highly addictive narcotics to patients without a legitimate medical purpose, state Attorney General Christopher Porrino announced Monday. Psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Newmark was investigated by the board after he was fired from Rowan University's School of Osteopathic Medicine for the "indiscriminate prescribing" of highly addictive narcotics without legitimate medical purpose. Podiatrist James Ludden had his license temporarily suspended after an investigation found he prescribed 13 people medications that went outside the scope of his podiatric license. That included large quantities of fentanyl, morphine sulfate and generic versions of Xanax and Dilaudid to a male patient and the man's 93-year-old mother. Ludden admitted that he prescribed the drugs as a "favor" to the patient, and had never examined the elderly woman. Physicians who do this "are feeding the alarming rise in opioid addiction and overdose deaths plaguing our state," Porrino said. "Keeping prescription  pads out of the hands of unscrupulous doctors is a key component in our fight against  the opioid and heroin crisis gripping New Jersey."