Baltimore, Maryland — A Maryland physician has been locked up for feeding the opioid epidemic from behind a stethoscope. Dr. Daniel Alexander, 53, of Pikesville, was sentenced today to 18 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiring to distribute oxycodone and alprazolam without a medical purpose. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake also ordered Alexander to forfeit $30,000 — the exact amount he pocketed running a high-volume prescription racket masquerading as a pain clinic.
Federal prosecutors wasted no words: Alexander didn’t heal patients — he exploited them. ‘Physician Daniel Alexander prescribed opioid drugs to people who had no medical need for the drugs,’ said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. ‘He violated his medical oath and distributed misery instead of medicine.’ The case, led by the DOJ, DEA, IRS-CI, Baltimore County Police, and the State’s Attorney’s Office, exposes how licensed doctors can become cogs in shadow economies built on addiction.
The operation centered on Healthy Life, a so-called pain management clinic opened in March 2011 in Owings Mills by co-defendants Michael Resnick, Alina Margulis, and Gerald Wiseberg. The clinic later moved to Timonium before shutting down on May 15, 2012. But this wasn’t healthcare — it was a vending machine for opioids. Over 80% of its customers came from out of state. Crowds swarmed the parking lots, shooting up in cars, trading cash for scripts, and fueling a regional drug surge.
William Crittenden, the clinic’s first medical director, was booted in August 2011 after the Maryland Board of Physicians launched an investigation into his reckless prescribing. His license was suspended. The owners didn’t change course — they just hired Alexander in September 2011, believing he’d do what Crittenden did: write narcotics prescriptions on demand. Margulis told Alexander outright: Healthy Life only prescribed pills — no physical therapy, no counseling, no real treatment.
Alexander lived up to the billing. Nicknamed ‘Speedy Gonzalez’ by clinic owners for how fast he churned through patients, he saw 627 people across 946 visits from September 2011 to March 2012. Oxycodone was prescribed 97% of the time. Alprazolam — a potent benzodiazepine — in 23% of visits. Often, Alexander handed out pills even as he discharged patients for visible drug abuse. All for $150 an hour and a clean $30,000 payday.
The clinic ran like a criminal enterprise. Resnick, Margulis, and Wiseberg — none of them doctors — dictated which drugs could be prescribed and at what dosages. Cash flowed in. No insurance accepted. No records scrutinized. Just prescriptions for oxycodone, alprazolam, and addiction. Alexander’s guilty plea confirms he knew the operation was illegal — but he kept writing scripts anyway. Now, he serves time while the wreckage of the opioid crisis still scars Maryland’s streets.
Related Federal Cases
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Key Facts
- State: Maryland
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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