Kansas Nurse Gets 3 Years in Prison for Helping to Divert Opioids

A registered nurse in Kansas has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for helping to divert the opiods oxycodone and oxycontin, according to a report by the Topeka Capital-Journal.

 

Christine Swanson, 30, and her two alleged co-conspirators diverted more than 2,400 pills at a Kmart pharmacy in Salina, Kan., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas charged. The office added that when investigators searched Ms. Swanson’s house, she told her boyfriend to flush opioid pills down the toilet, earning her one count of obstructing justice.

 

Ms. Swanson worked with her sister, co-defendant Katherine Surowski, and a friend, co-defendant Denise Carlson, who have not been tried yet. Ms. Carlson is charged with forging physicians' signatures on stolen blank prescription pads while Ms. Swanson monitored Ms. Surowski's work schedule.

 

Read the Topeka Capital-Journal report on opioids.

 

Related Articles on Illegal Use of Opioids:

6 Steps Pain Physicians Can Take to Curtail Misuse of Opioids

Government Issues Plan to Reduce Prescription Drug Abuse

Study: Primary Care Physicians Lax in Monitoring Patients on Opioids

 

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