A New York City doctor has been charged for selling prescriptions for pain pills that ended up on the street and in the wrong hands. The Upper West Side practice started as more of a family practice that would take patients on Medicaid but in 2009 began to write “cash-preferred” prescriptions with minimal examinations, say police.

Dr. Rogelio Lucas and his wife Lydia are charged with 37 counts of illegally selling a controlled substance and one count of fourth-degree conspiracy. They sold more than $77 million worth of painkillers on the black market in the past six years and are suspected of being some of the most abundant suppliers in the city.

The pair would allegedly write prescriptions for oxycodone and charge $120 for them, turning a healthy profit and writing an estimated 23,600 prescriptions. They made deposits totaling $500,000 into various bank accounts, police officers recovered over $600,000 from one of their homes, and they had multiple other properties around the globe. Police believe that some of the city’s drug rings even got supplies from this couple and then re-sold them on the street.

This is scary because these kinds of drugs in the wrong hands can be highly dangerous. Workers’ comp has tried many methods to keep track of who is dispensing pills and to whom, but if they are being sold on the black market there is no way to track if a patient might be getting more than they need. People who may not even need the drugs for pain purposes or from workers’ comp can also get their hands on them and likely do not know how to take them without endangering themselves. Just a scary situation all around and I am glad that this doctor appears to be out of business.