In August, police arrested Darryl Thomas in the 1700 block of Pennsylvania Ave. for possession and distribution of Suboxone. Thomas, 42, of the 2800 block of Joseph Ave., pleaded guilty to the charges in November, according to court records.
In the six-page document he gave officials yesterday, Sharfstein reported that the drug's manufacturer, Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals Inc., found in its studies that "fewer than 10 percent" of doctors across the country reported knowledge of misuse of the drug to get high.
Yet in the company study published October, its consultants found that half of the doctors they surveyed were aware of an illegal trade in buprenorphine and that their numbers have been climbing. The study concluded that: "It was the patients in treatment for opioid abuse - no doubt selling or trading their own supply of buprenorphine - who were seen as major contributors to the street supply."
