bakersfield.com on November 04, 2011 reported that three weeks after federal agents raided a Bakersfield medical clinic to examine the prescribing records of a local physician, that doctor has been arrested. Gonzalo Flores Ruiz, 47, of Bakersfield, is accused of knowingly prescribing addictive prescription painkillers for "no legitimate medical purpose," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The drug at issue was hydrocodone, a controlled narcotic marketed under the brand names Vicodin, Vicoprofen, Lortab, Lorcet and Norco, among others. Between April 2009 and October 2011, Ruiz prescribed and distributed the painkiller without medical justification and outside the usual course of professional practice, according to the 21-count indictment issued Thursday but sealed until Friday.

The original article can be found at bakersfield.com.