LOCAL DOCTOR FACES PRESCRIPTION-DRUG CHARGES

Tallahassee neurologist Edmund Molis faces 84 charges of obtaining
controlled substances by fraud following his arrest Wednesday night.

Molis reportedly wrote prescriptions for a Tallahassee woman
identified as Marianna Thedieck, who would fill them and give them
back to Molis for personal use, according to a Florida Department of
Law Enforcement arrest report. Thedieck has not been charged with a
crime. Authorities think that Molis did not distribute or sell the
drugs.

Molis, whose practice is listed at 2711 Capital Medical Blvd., could
not be reached for comment Thursday. A listed home phone number was
disconnected. The voicemail at his practice says it's closed.

Molis' arrest culminates a four-month investigation that began after a
Publix pharmacist contacted the Leon County Sheriff's Office after he
noticed a woman fill a prescription and leave in a car later
determined to belong to Molis. The pharmacist then searched records
and noticed that Thedieck filled prescriptions at six different
pharmacies in northeast Tallahassee.

An investigation by the North Florida Drug Diversion Response team
determined that between July 10, 2004, and Jan. 19, Thedieck filled 84
prescriptions: 51 for hydrocodone, a painkiller commercially known as
Vicodin; 19 for Xanax, a depressant used to treat anxiety; and 14 for
Provigil, a stimulant used to treat sleep disorders.

Molis' arrest is the second since January of a North Florida doctor
resulting from FDLE investigations of controlled-substance violations
and fraud, said Phil Kiracofe, a spokesman for the agency.

In January, a federal jury convicted Dr. Thomas G. Merrill of
Apalachicola for causing the deaths of five of his patients through
overdoses of highly potent painkillers, including morphine and
oxycodone. The 70-year-old doctor faces life in prison.

He was convicted on 98 of 100 counts, including illegally dispensing
controlled substances, defrauding health-care benefit programs and
wire fraud.

Merrill was accused of writing 33,000 prescriptions from January 2001
to May 2004, and 81 percent of those were for controlled substances.

Molis' medical license was suspended in 1992 after he admitted to drug
addiction, according to an article published in a 2000 Boston Globe
profile of Joan Kennedy that includes an account of Molis dating her
in the mid-1990s. Molis has held licenses in Florida, Georgia,
Massachusetts, Virginia, Wisconsin and California, according to the
Florida Department of Health. The agency's Web site also indicates
that Molis was charged with misdemeanor possession of controlled
substances within the past 10 years. It does not provide details of
that case.

He earned a medical degree in 1978 from the University of Manitoba,
according to Florida Department of Health.

A felony charge does not result in an automatic removal of a medical
licence, Thometta Cozart, spokeswoman for the Department of Health,
said. "Basically those things make the doctor subject to discipline
against his licence by the board of medicine.

The medical board has to process the complaint, in this case brought
by law enforcement, within 180 days and determine if probable cause
exists for the complaint. If facts are in dispute, the department
holds a formal hearing; if facts are not in dispute, an informal
hearing is held. Another option is for the doctor to negotiate a
consent agreement with the department or voluntarily relinquish his or
her license.