Chiropractor busted writing illegal scripts

Posted by Press Release on November 28, 2018

Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun M. Copeland announced the arrest of Marc Steven Persson, 40, who is charged with writing fraudulent prescriptions for addictive painkillers, such as Percocet and Oxycodone, to his chiropractor patients. The announcement comes at the conclusion of an undercover investigation by members of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division Drug Task Force including Detectives Shawn McGee, Sean Brydges, and Gerald Scanlon, and Lieutenant John Hamill of the Ridley Township Police Department.

Persson, of the 600 block of Academy Road in Swarthmore, is charged with six counts of delivery and criminal attempt to deliver a controlled substance as well as forgery and other related offenses.

On May 9, Ridley Township Police Department was dispatched to Perssonal Health Chiropractor, located on East Chester Pike in the Ridley Park section of Ridley Township. Upon arrival, the responding officer spoke with an employee who reported that the business owner and office chiropractor, Marc Persson, had been writing fraudulent prescriptions for chiropractic patients. The employee also told police that some local CVS Pharmacies had rejected and flagged as fraudulent several prescriptions given to patients.

The investigation revealed that Persson and a medical doctor had previously been business partners. Persson would perform chiropractic work and the medical doctor would write prescriptions for the patients of the practice. In Spring 2017, the doctor left Perssonal Health Chiropractic and a different licensed physician was brought in on a per diem basis to see patients at the Perssonal Health Chiropractic.

However, after both medical doctors had left the practice, Persson began writing prescriptions for patients and forged the names of the two doctors on those prescriptions. He would also “call in” prescriptions to pharmacies for chiropractic patients, posing as a doctor, to obtain the prescriptions for patients.

During the course of the investigation, detectives interviewed Persson who advised he was a chiropractor and the owner of Perssonal Health Chiropractic. Persson admitted that although he was not a licensed doctor, he had illegally written several fraudulent prescriptions for his chiropractic patients. At the conclusion of the investigation, it was determined that Marc Persson wrote fraudulent prescriptions and forged doctor signatures for Oxycodone, Xanax, and Gabapentin, for six different patients from April to May 2017.

The district attorney commended the detectives who worked on the case and noted the seriousness of these crimes which ultimately contribute to the heroin epidemic seen in Delaware County and across the region.

“Every day, opioids are killing our loved ones across the state, and the abuse of prescription drugs still remains a risk factor when it comes to heroin use and addiction,” she said in a press release. “While the majority of practitioners here in Delaware County are law-abiding professionals who care deeply about their patients, the reckless and careless actions of Mr. Persson show a complete disregard for the well-being of his patients who he put in grave danger.”