San Diego area pain clinic doctor Brenton Wynn, M.D., has paid $200,000 to resolve allegations that he illegally prescribed opioids and other dangerous drugs to his patients. Wynn has an office at 502 Euclid Ave., Suite 200, in National City. He was a graduate of Howard University College of Medicine in 1998.
The Controlled Substances Act provides that doctors may write prescriptions for opioids only for a legitimate medical purpose while acting in the usual course of their professional practice. The United States alleged that Dr. Wynn wrote opioid prescriptions to patients without a legitimate medical purpose and/or outside the usual course of his professional practice for more than five years. Dr. Wynn wrote prescriptions for fentanyl, oxycodone, hydromorphone, methadone, oxymorphone, and morphine.
The United States further alleged that Dr. Wynn prescribed at the same time a dangerous combination of opioids and benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium. Of even more concern, Dr. Wynn allegedly prescribed to some patients a combination of at least one opioid, one benzodiazepine and one muscle relaxant such as Soma. Drug abusers colloquially refer to the opioid, benzodiazepine, and muscle relaxant combination as the “Trinity” or “Holy Trinity” because of its rapid euphoric effects. These drug combinations are known to significantly increase the risk of addiction, abuse, and overdose.
Based on its investigation, the United States alleged that Dr. Wynn prescribed large quantities of opioids to his patients that reached high daily MME levels, often even exceeding 120 MME. The United States further alleged that Dr. Wynn sometimes continued to prescribe dangerous opioids even when his patients’ urine drug test results showed that they were not taking the drugs Dr. Wynn prescribed.
The DEA has a pending administrative action against Dr. Wynn (Docket No. 20-10) to revoke his ability to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances.
“While the vast amount of medical professionals prescribe opioids legitimately and are meeting their patients’ standard of care, DEA will vigorously pursue information from the public about the doctors who are not,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge John W. Callery. “DEA will always protect the public from doctors who put their patients in harm’s way.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dylan M. Aste of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California handled this matter along with DEA investigators.