OxyContin is shown in this file photo. Roger Lallemand Jr., who is registered to take part in the state’s new medical marijuana program, wrote prescriptions for thousands of powerful painkillers, including OxyContin and Roxicodone, when they weren’t medically necessary. By Mark Mueller and Amy Brittain/The Star-Ledger
Calling him a "clear and imminent danger to the public," the state Attorney General's Office has moved to suspend the medical license of an Old Bridge doctor who officials say indiscriminately prescribed pain pills and anabolic steroids to his patients.
Roger Lallemand Jr., who is registered to take part in the state’s new medical marijuana program, wrote prescriptions for thousands of powerful painkillers, including OxyContin and Roxicodone, when they weren’t medically necessary, according to a complaint filed last week with the state Board of Medical Examiners, the agency that regulates doctors in New Jersey.
In some cases, the complaint states, Lallemand continued to prescribe the drugs despite evidence that the patients were selling or trading the pills.
At the same time, he regularly pushed prescriptions for testosterone, an anabolic steroid, telling an undercover investigator with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that he offered it to all of his patients, according to the document.
Lallemand's "conduct as a physician unequivocally rises to the level of public danger," Deputy Attorney General Carla Silva wrote in the complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Star-Ledger.
"Nothing short of a temporary suspension," Silva added, would protect the physician’s current and future patients. She said Lallemand, 39, had demonstrated "gross malpractice, gross negligence and/or gross incompetence."
The complaint orders him to appear Wednesday before the Board of Medical Examiners in Trenton, where the panel’s members are expected to vote on the request for an immediate suspension. The suspension’s length will depend on the outcome of a disciplinary hearing to be held later.
Although the case remains, at the moment, an administrative action, Lallemand still faces the possibility of criminal charges, said Special Agent Douglas Collier, a spokesman for the DEA’s New Jersey division.
"At any time, we could move for a criminal case," Collier said. "It could potentially go that way."
POT PROGRAM PROBLEMS
The investigation into Lallemand comes amid growing concern about the abuse of prescription drugs, particularly addictive opiates such as OxyContin. Collier called the proliferation of painkillers a "real threat" that has become a priority for the DEA’s New Jersey division.
Roger Lallemand Jr. is seen in this Facebook photo. Neither Lallemand nor his attorney, John Orlovsky, responded to requests for comment. The physician’s wife, Dominique Sajous-Lallemand, answered the door Thursday evening at the couple’s expansive hilltop home in Holmdel. She declined to comment on the complaint but said her husband was no longer associated with the medical marijuana program.
However, Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Senior Services, said Friday that Lallemand remains one of 131 doctors registered with the medical marijuana initiative, which has been slow to get off the ground.
Gov. Chris Christie has repeatedly expressed concerns about the program’s safeguards, telling reporters last month, for instance, that he didn’t want it to become "a cottage industry for unscrupulous doctors who will write prescriptions no matter what."
Lallemand was approved for participation in the program after the health department verified with the Board of Medical Examiners that he held both a valid medical license and a license to prescribe controlled dangerous substances.
If either of those licenses is suspended, Lallemand will be removed from the medical marijuana program, Leusner said.
EDUCATION GAP
Lallemand, the son of a physician, obtained his medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine in 1999. Lallemand then completed two years of a five-year residency in orthopedic surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, records show.
With three offices — two in Old Bridge and one in Asbury Park — his practice is a busy one.
In recent years, its focus has expanded to include pain management and anti-aging medicine, a controversial field that touts the benefits of hormone therapy, including the use of testosterone.
The complaint states that Lallemand has "no significant formal education" in those disciplines beyond what he learned in medical school.
The Star-Ledger took note of Lallemand's thriving hormone practice in December 2010, when the newspaper published a lengthy report about the widespread use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone among law enforcement officers and firefighters. Lallemand had several hundred officers and firefighters in his practice at the time, the newspaper found.
QUICK FILL-UPS
The DEA’s probe into Lallemand began five months ago, when an agent using an assumed name visited his office on Route 516 in Old Bridge.
The agent told Lallemand that he was suffering from discomfort in his lower back and buttocks.
The doctor’s examination amounted to a touch on the knee and a few cursory questions, the complaint states. In two minutes and 40 seconds, it was over, and the agent walked away with a prescription for Roxicodone, a brand of the painkiller oxycodone.
A file photo of a marijuana plant is pictured in this Star-Ledger file photo. Roger Lallemand Jr., an Old Bridge doctor who is registered to take part in the state's new medical marijuana program, is facing suspension. Officials say he indiscriminately prescribed pain pills and anabolic steroids to his patientsFollow-up visits weren’t much longer. On Feb. 27, Lallemand was with the agent for nine minutes, but five minutes and 30 seconds of that time were spent discussing prostitution and sports tickets, according to the complaint.
In each of his five visits, despite the lack of a thorough examination, the agent came away with prescriptions, most for painkillers. Lallemand also prescribed Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, even though the agent expressed no symptoms of anxiety, the complaint states.
The Board of Medical Examiners, notified of the DEA’s probe, later confronted Lallemand with the findings. The complaint contends that he then doctored his own scant records to reflect diagnoses and treatment plans.
"Respondent’s extensive measures to deceive the board demonstrate a lack of moral character and unequivocally constitute professional misconduct," wrote Silva, the deputy attorney general.
NOT AN ISOLATED CASE
The board broadened its probe by examining Lallemand’s records, finding numerous cases in which he allegedly put his patients in jeopardy.
In one instance, the complaint states, he continued to prescribe painkillers to a patient already suffering from liver disease and who had recently been hospitalized for jaundice.
The continued use of painkillers could have led to respiratory suppression and death, the documents state.
In a case involving steroids, a 33-year-old man’s testosterone level had gotten so high — nearly twice the high-end limit for an adult male — that his wife contacted the board out of concern, investigators found.
In another case, a 34-year-old woman’s testosterone level "dangerously" shot up to more than six times the high-end limit for an adult female after Lallemand prescribed an Androgel pump for her, authorities said.
Noting that high doses of testosterone can lead to aggressive behavior and can raise the risk of stroke and liver damage, the complaint called Lallemand’s prescribing habits "reckless."
Editor's Note: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that Dr. Roger Lallemand Jr., an Old Bridge physician, completed a two-year orthopedic surgery residency at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. Lallemand completed only two years of the required five-year residency.
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