The lure of making a fast dollar is strong – even for medical doctors with the ability to make money practicing their profession.
Earlier this month, a criminal case went to trial. The defendant is a Staten Island doctor accused of selling steroids for easy cash. The steroids that he sold allegedly killed one of his customers.
Dr. Lucente is specifically charged with 76 counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance. If convicted on all counts he could face a prison term that far exceeds his life expectancy. The possible sentence could be more than 400 years in prison.
The trial is expected to last at least six weeks and a verdict will not be reached until at least sometime in April.
Dr. Lucente’s case presents an important lesson for everyone who thinks that steroids are safe and “not as bad as selling other drugs.” Steroids are not safe. It is illegal to sell steroids in the United States without a physician’s prescription. Steroids, if not medically supervised, can be deadly.
If the allegations against Dr Lucente are true then he may have been able to make some fast cash selling steroids but it came at quite a price. He would have been better off practicing medicine.
