LANSING, Mich. – The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs served an order summarily suspending the pharmacist license of Amir Rafi.
The Michigan Public Health Code provides for summary suspension of professional licenses when the public health, safety, or welfare requires emergency action. LARA also served an accompanying administrative complaint on Rafi.
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The complaint alleges that from 2015 through 2018, Rafi engaged in a conspiracy whereby patients were taken by recruiters to selected physicians who would prescribe the patients schedule two controlled substances with no medical purpose, often times prescribing without ever seeing the patient.
Recruiters would then transport the patients to pharmacies where pharmacists – including Rafi – would fill these unnecessary prescriptions in exchange for cash. These drugs were then sold on the street. Rafi issued approximately 11,130 unit doses of schedule 2 controlled substances as part of this scheme.
On December 12, 2019, in the United States District Court – Eastern District of Michigan, Rafi was convicted of Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute and to Distribute Controlled Substances. He was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison.
An order of summary suspension is a temporary measure to protect the public and not a final determination that a licensee has violated the Public Health Code.
LARA encourages all concerned residents, patients, parents and peers to file complaints against licensed health professionals who may allegedly be risking public health, safety or welfare.
For more information on filing a complaint with the department, visit Michigan.gov/BPL or review the Citizen’s Guide to Filing a Complaint. For more information on LARA’s regulation of health professions in Michigan, please go to www.michigan.gov/healthlicense.