DOCTOR, 2 PHARMACISTS HELD IN SHASTA DRUG STING

INVESTIGATORS LINK RING TO 3 FATAL OVERDOSES

A doctor and the owners of a Shasta County pharmacy were arrested yesterday
on murder and fraud charges for allegedly running a narcotics ring linked to
the fatal overdoses of three local residents.

In addition to the deaths, state law-enforcement officials said,
investigators believe the ring may be responsible for addicting hundreds of
others in the Redding area.

The allegations center on Dr. Frank Fisher, who is accused of prescribing
unusually high amounts of the tightly controlled and infrequently used
narcotic, oxycodone, via the Shasta Pharmacy in Redding. The scheme,
investigators said, also involved Fisher defrauding the state of $2 million
by filing false MediCal claims.

Local and county officials, aided by state drug agents, served warrants
yesterday on Fisher, 45, of Anderson, and the owners of the Shasta Pharmacy,
Stephen and Madeline Miller. The Millers are accused of conspiring with
Fisher, a Harvard-educated doctor who ran the Westwood Walk-in Clinics in
Anderson and in Reddingy.

``There may be a thousand patients relying on this drug,'' state Attorney
General Bill Lockyer told a news conference yesterday. ``They are starting
to show up with withdrawal problems at local hospitals.''

The most serious charges facing Fisher and the Millers are their alleged
complicity in the deaths of Bruce Johannsen Jr., 19, Rebecca Mae Williams,
34, and Tamara Stevens, 38. All three died last summer from lethal overdoses
of oxycodone, authorities said.

News of the arrests and murder charges stunned the Shasta County communities
of Anderson and Redding, where last night state drug agents were busy
carting boxes of evidence away from the Shasta Pharmacy.

``My sister, Tamara, was one of the (overdose) victims,'' said a woman
working at Gary's Take & Bake Pizza next door to the pharmacy. ``I own the
pizza place next to the people who murdered her. Is this a strange town or
what?''

The woman, who declined to give her name, said she never knew what Tamara
Stevens was being treated for and was shocked when Stevens died of an
overdose in September.

In fact, she said, she learned that Stevens was listed as a murder victim
only last night when she began chatting with two drug investigators who
walked into her restaurant on a coffee break.

``This hit me like a ton of bricks,'' she said. ``I just heard about it a
half hour ago.''

Oxycodone is a painkiller used typically for terminally ill cancer patients
and is found in the more commonly prescribed Percodan and Percocet. It is a
powerful narcotic that is tightly regulated with pharmacists required to
report purchase amounts to state and federal drug agencies.

Shasta Pharmacy, authorities said, purchased 14,336 grams of oxycodone in
1998, compared with an average of 102 grams for pharmacies in the United
States. Improper billing of these prescriptions boosted the couple's monthly
MediCal billings from $52,000 to approximately $250,000, Lockyer said.

According to 1998 federal Drug Enforcement Administration data, Shasta
Pharmacy became the top wholesale buyer of physician-prescribed oxycodone in
the state and the 10th largest purchaser in the nation.

``This was a highly sophisticated drug-dealing operation,'' Lockyer said.
``It appears people were addicted to the drug as a result of Dr. Fisher's
prescription practices.''

The 27-count indictment was the latest to be filed against the physician.
Fisher was charged in May 1998 with submitting false MediCal claims
involving the over-prescription of drugs.

Fisher and the Millers are in jail in lieu of $1 million bail each.

Faster action by state and local investigators could not have prevented the
deaths, Lockyer said.

``I wasn't here, but it takes time to get the evidence,'' he said. ``I wish
things could have been more expeditious, but we have to make the case, or we
won't solve the problem.''

Lockyer said the state hopes to recover some of the money and was moving to
freeze the Millers' bank accounts.

This is the first time murder charges have been filed in conjunction with a
MediCal fraud investigation.

Authorities also arrested two of Fisher's employees yesterday on charges of
selling methamphetamines and marijuana to clinic patients.

It was ``a one-stop shopping center'' for drug abusers, Jack Nair told the
Los Angeles Times. Nair was the agent in charge of the state's Bureau of
Narcotics Enforcement office in Redding.

Nair ran an undercover operation last month at Fisher's clinic in the
8,600-resident community of Anderson. The doctor would often see patients
for just a few minutes, Nair said, and would sometimes say, ``I'll prescribe
these to you. They work well with amphetamines.''