Roslyn doctor accused of illegally prescribing opioids released on bond

Tameshwar Ammar was arrested and charged with illegally writing prescriptions for oxycodone to two people.

News 12 Staff

Nov 8, 2019, 11:56 AM

Updated 1,629 days ago

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A Roslyn doctor accused of selling prescriptions for powerful painkillers was released from the Central Islip Federal Courthouse on a $500,000 bond Friday.
Tameshwar Ammar was arrested and charged with illegally writing prescriptions for oxycodone to two people.
According to court papers, between 2013 and 2019 Ammar illegally prescribed more than 19,000 pills of the highly addictive drug. This was after the state's I-STOP law went into effect, which is meant to track prescriptions and prevent abuse.
However, addiction expert Adam Birkenstock says, even now, the law only works when the doctor is honest. He says in a statement, “All of these prescriptions came from just one office, meaning the only prescriber checking the system would have been Dr. Ammar. In this case, it's not the I-STOP system that broke down..."
Prosecutors say the doctor was selling the drug to fund his own drug habit. They say one of his customers was a known drug dealer with whom he allegedly traded oxycodone pills for cocaine.
According to officials, the second person was a patient of Ammar's. They say he was continually given prescriptions for oxycodone and methadone, and in July of 2019 that person died of an overdose.
While he's out on bond, he will not be allowed to prescribe any controlled substances. He will also have to wear a GPS monitoring device.


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