A dentist from Kentucky will spend 20 years in prison for unlawfully prescribing opioids to patients whom he knew were drug addicts, a federal court ruled Friday, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Dr. Jay M. Sadrinia, 61, of Villa Hills, prescribed “powerful opioids” to patients whose history of substance abuse disorder he himself noted in his patient charts, the DOJ said in a statement Friday. One of Sadrinia’s patients died of morphine overdose several days after Sadrinia “charged the patient $37,000 for dental procedures and prescribed the patient medically unnecessary quantities of narcotics, including morphine,” the statement revealed.
Sadrinia was convicted of “one count of unlawful distribution of controlled substances resulting in death and one count of unlawful distribution of controlled substances” in June 2023, the DOJ said in a separate statement. Sadrinia’s dental procedures were routine and the prescription of the controlled substances was unwarranted and dangerous, the statement noted. (RELATED: Judge Sentences Wealthy Dentist To Life In Prison For Killing His Wife On African Safari Vacation)
Four weeks after Sadrinia’s conviction, the Kentucky Board of Dentistry revoked his license to practice dentistry in the state.
“With due regard for the totality of the circumstances, the Board, by and through a majority vote of the [Law Enforcement Committee], hereby orders that your license to practice dentistry in Kentucky be immediately revoked for the reasons set forth above as necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public …,” the letter announcing his revocation partly read.
Sadrinia had been practicing dentistry for three decades both at the Tri-State Implant and Sedation Dentistry in Crescent Springs and at three other clinics in northern Kentucky which he owned and ran, the Lexington Herald reported.
Sadrinia faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the death by overdose of the patient, according to the DOJ.