Illegal prescription blank flow traced from New Brunswick to shore

A floodgate to prescription drug abuse in New Jersey is shut down at the source, in Middlesex County.

Downtown Printing Center of New Brunswick surrendered its authority to print prescription blanks in the aftermath of a probe by the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to trace the unauthorized flow.

According to the office of acting state Attorney General Robert Lougy, investigators traced 25,000 unauthorized blanks. Eighty percent of them were shipped to Toms River, the rest to Sayreville.

The company was accused of lax security measures in issuing the blanks to three individuals, none of whom were licensed doctors, authorities said.

The final consent order terminating Downtown Printing's authorization as a New Jersey Prescription Blanks (NJPB) vendor requires operators stop production for at least three years, and either destroy the processing equipment and raw materials, or send them to state officials.

The company is eligible to re-apply after the three-year suspension, and if approved, would be subject to semi-annual audits for at least two years.

Downtown Printing filled the orders between August 2012 and December 2014. State investigators said that the three individuals designated in the orders had no idea that their names were being used to secure the pads.

The first order, for 5,000 blanks, was placed on August 22, 2012, and sent to a Sayreville destination. Between January and November 2013, the company shipped 10,000 NJPBs via United Parcel Service to a house in Toms River, in three orders by an individual claiming to be a nurse in a practice in the township, authorities said.

An additional 5,000 blanks were ordered in November 2013 by someone posing as a doctor, sent to the same address, and an order for another 5,000 attributed to the same "nurse"' was collected at the print shop the following November, by someone whose identity wasn't verified, investigators said.

DCA alleged that Downtown Printing failed to verify that the blanks were delivered to active, licensed physicians in good standing, failed to verify that the blanks were sent to addresses within the state agency's database, failed to verify the identities and authority of those who ordered the pads and of the individual who took delivery in person.

Suspicions of business scams or consumer abuse can be sent to DCA through the agency's web page, or by phone at 1-800-242-5846 or 973-504-6200.