A veterinarian in Virginia admitted stealing for his own use his clinic’s supply of opioid painkillers and covering his tracks by refilling the vials with other substances.
Patrick Gries, 54, was sentenced Friday to eight months in federal prison on drug charges, said the U.S. attorney’s office for Virginia’s western district. He pleaded guilty in January.
As the primary surgeon at an animal hospital near Lynchburg, Va., Gries had access to the facility’s supply of Dilaudid, or hydromorphone, used for treating animals’ pain after surgery.
He injected the drug into himself, then topped off the vials with another substance and returned them to the hospital’s inventory, the federal attorney’s press release said.
Most frequently, he replaced the hydromorphone with saline solution or butorphanol, another opioid-based painkiller.
After the tampering, the concentration of hydromorphone in the vials “varied wildly,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum. One vial had less than 1% of hydromorphone after Gries is accused of refilling it, the document said.
In addition to increasing the risk of animals’ suffering for lack of proper medication, the tampering raised the possibility of infection from impurities in the injected substance.
Gries had developed an opioid dependency after surgery in 2020; he underwent addiction treatment after the thefts were discovered the following year, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
He pleaded guilty to adulteration of a drug held for sale after shipment in interstate commerce and distribution of a controlled substance without a written prescription.
He is no longer employed by the animal clinic, where he had worked for more than 25 years.
