The high rates of substance abuse among healthcare professionals come as no surprise to anyone who works in the healthcare sector. The trend is especially prevalent among doctors, nurses, and other personnel who work in hospitals or who render emergency services. These professionals work unusually long shifts, and the events of a day’s work are unpredictable; at any moment, they might have to respond to a life-or-death emergency, and even if they do everything right, the outcome might not be life-saving. 

Furthermore, controlled substances are always within reach in hospitals and emergency medicine settings; the barriers that separate the public from drugs available only by prescription are not present when, by virtue of your employment, you have the authority to prescribe or administer these drugs. Therefore, criminal cases often occur where healthcare professionals are accused of tampering with drugs or prescriptions in order to divert controlled substances to themselves. If you are being accused of illegally possessing drugs in the context of your work in the healthcare profession, contact a Tulsa drug charge lawyer.

Vials of Narcotics Showed Signs of Tampering

Some people wonder if their work makes a difference in the world, but Jessica Perriman never had a reason to entertain such fears. She worked as a helicopter paramedic and eventually rose to the rank of director of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) of the Burns Flat District. Perriman’s problems with opioid abuse probably began long before any of her coworkers found out. The legal investigation into her drug use began when nurses at the Altus helicopter base, which is a starting point for Survival Flight helicopter flights that airlift seriously injured patients to hospitals equipped to treat them, noticed that the vials of morphine and fentanyl at the base showed signs of tampering. Their lids appeared to have been punctured by needles, and their weights did not match the quantities of liquid indicated in the labels on the bottles. Forensics testing also showed that the contents of the bottles did not always match their labels, as if someone had extracted the original drug and refilled the bottle; for example, a bottle that was labeled morphine contained only a small amount of morphine but was mostly full of Benadryl.

Shortly before Perriman’s arrest, coworkers began to notice that she seemed intoxicated at work. She fell asleep at work more often than one would expect, in light of the work schedule, and her speech was often incoherent. At one point, Perriman was unable to wake up when called to respond to an emergency, and her coworkers had to call on the team at another nearby helicopter base to respond to the emergency and airlift the patient. Perriman is now facing criminal charges for stealing controlled substances.

Contact Tracy Tiernan About Criminal Defense Cases

A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for illegal possession of controlled substances.  Contact Tracy Tiernan in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to discuss your case.