Local Doctor Facing Federal Charges For Opioid Prescriptions

A Grand Rapids doctor has been writing prescriptions in exchange for cash to fulfill his own drug habit.

According to WOOD, Dr. Richard Piazza is now facing federal charges on conspiracy to distribute thousands of opioid pills.

Piazza had previous lost his license in other states and has faced charges in Iowa regarding controlled substances.

Piazza had managed to get licenses for Grand Rapids, Bay City, Marquette and Kincheloe.

A pharmacist alerted the DEA when he noticed Piazza had been writing a lot of prescriptions for opioids which seemed odd because Piazza works at the Society of Healing Arts Institute in Grand Rapids for holistic medicine.

Police over the past couple years have caught people with multiple prescriptions prescribed by Piazza, who exchanged the pills for cash, meth, marijuana and cocaine.

Since December of 2017 until January of this year, Piazza had wrote bad prescriptions for more than 10,000 pills with most of them being opioids.

Piazza has written many bad prescriptions in Montcalm county where he was charged with possession of cocaine and intent to sell marijuana.

Piazza has had similar problems in Kansas and California.

Not sure how a guy is allowed to do this in multiple states, lose his license, then be able to start up again in another state. Hopefully this will be his last time.