An Amherst anesthesiologist and pain management doctor who runs a medical marijuana practice in the Southtowns is under arrest and facing federal charges of fraud and identity theft.
According to prosecutors, Dr. Paul Biddle fraudulently used the names of dozens of patients, both dead and alive, to obtain controlled substances.
Biddle runs the Paul T. Biddle MD Pain Management clinic in Orchard Park. He is also affiliated with two hospitals through Catholic Health.
Investigators say Biddle was prescribing drugs for 23 patients through a pharmacy in Tampa, Florida. The prescriptions were sent directly to Biddle's home in Amherst or to his office on Sterling Drive in Orchard Park. Two of the patients who Biddle wrote prescriptions for had already passed away, according to prosecutors.
Between November 11th, 2013 and October 16th of this year, Biddle wrote and received a total of 888 illegal prescriptions from the Florida pharmacy for opioids such as hydromorphone HCL, fentanyl citrate and morphine sulfate, prosecutors said.
According to a federal complaint, evidence recovered from Biddle's garbage suggest the opioids he was receiving fraudulently were being used illegally at his home along with marijuana.
Biddle appeared in federal court and was released under the condition he not practice medicine or write prescriptions pending his next court appearance on November 27th.
According to the bio on his pain management clinic's page, Biddle received his undergraduate degree from Alfred University. He graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1998. Biddle was a practicing anesthesiologist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute before opening his own pain management clinic in 2009.
An earlier version of this story included a picture of a doctor not connected to this story.
