A San Joaquin County pharmacy and its owner have agreed to pay $1 million in penalties and are barred from being in the medication business for allegedly dispensing opiates and other drugs based on invalid prescriptions, U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said.  

Nor-Cal Pharmacies Inc., doing business as Lockeford Drug, and pharmacist/owner Lawrence Howen agreed to pay the penalties to resolve allegations of violations of the Controlled Substances Act, prosecutors said Tuesday. 

The defendants were found to have either ignored that it was happening or knowingly distributed prescriptions that were not for a legitimate medical purpose, including over 116,000 pills such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, addictive opiates.  

The pills were allegedly given to defendant Joe Anthony Bernal, who is charged in a separate case with allegedly distributing the pills. Prosecutors allege Bernal presented the invalid prescriptions, and the defendants “took no steps to determine the validity” of the prescriptions, prosecutors said.  

The settlement means there is a permanent injunction against the defendants that permanently bars them from dispensing controlled substances, owning a company that dispenses controlled substances, or employing another person that dispenses controlled substances, according to Talbert. 

“As a pharmacy that fills prescriptions for opioids and other dangerous drugs, the defendants had an obligation to fill only legitimate prescriptions,” U.S. Attorney Talbert said. “The defendants failed to comply with that obligation, and thereby failed in their responsibility to prevent the opioids from being diverted into illicit channels.” 

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.