MBI raids Orlando-area pain clinic

Undercover Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation agents spent most of Wednesday morning raiding the A Stop Pain Management and Weight Loss Clinic on East Colonial Drive. 

Dr. Laurence Skolnik had little to say as he was led out of the office in handcuffs, and neither did the business owner and manager, Billie Aldridge.  Both are charged with trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in hydrocodone and oxycodone, along with a slew of other charges.

MBI director Ron Stucker says this was a major pill mill operation.  “For the records we pulled, between November of 2014 and November 2015 they had prescribed close to a million pills of this nature, almost 800,000 of those pills were either Oxycodone or hydrocodone,” Stucker said.   He says his agency has been investigating this business since October.   Stucker says patients paid $250 to $300 cash for each visit and he says Dr. Skolnic was prescribing drugs unnecessarily.  “Patients came from as far away as the panhandle and Miami, Florida to this location to receive these highly addictive drugs.” 

This isn’t the first time this business has been in trouble.  The State Department of Health shut them down in 2011.  Investigators say when A Stop Pain Management opened back up, it was no longer allowed to dispense drugs, just prescribe them.  Stucker says many folks getting prescriptions here didn’t take the drugs they were prescribed.  He says they sold them on the streets illegally and the doctor should have known. 

“They should have an opioid in their drug screen to show that they were actually taking the medication. If a patient were to come in after they'd been prescribed numerous prescription of opioids and have a clean drug screen it begs the question, what are they doing with that medication?” said  Stucker.

Aldridge is being held on a $1.9 million dollar bond. Investigators say they also raided her home in Brevard this morning.  Dr. Skolnik’s bond is set at $1 million.