Federal authorities are charging a Soldotna doctor with illegally writing prescriptions for addictive opiate painkillers for patients who didn’t need them.
Doctor Lavern Davidhizar, who runs Family Medical Clinic in Soldotna, prescribed more than 700,000 opioid pills between 2017 and 2019, according to the federal drug enforcement agency. Investigators interviewed drug users who called Davidhizar the “candy man.”
Authorities also charged an Eagle River nurse practitioner. Jessica Spayd runs Eagle River Wellness. She prescribed more than 4 million pills to patients between January 2014 and June 2019. The affidavit blames Spayd’s overprescription of opioids on the overdose deaths of two of her patients, in December 2015 and February 2016.
Spayd faces a minimum of 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges against her, while Davidhizar faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
