Jeffrey " Jeff " Young (born March 31, 1962) is an American guitarist. Around 2013, Young allegedly prescribed hydrocodone, a benzodiazepine, and Adderall for a patient whose visits he described as a concierge-type thing, Pickering said in court. This ingratiating tendency allegedly extended to handing out prescriptions. Being around Young made her feel emotionally safe, she said. (The drugmaker that is most often blamed for the epidemic doesnt agree with this assessment: Suggesting that activities that last occurred more than 16 years ago are responsible for todays complex and multifaceted opioid crisis is deeply flawed, a Purdue Pharma spokesperson, Robert Josephson, said in a statement to The New York Times for a story on this issue.). I swear he didnt look at my leg for 30 seconds, and he told me exactly what it was, he says. Khazan: Jeff was working as a nurse practitioner at a clinic called Preventagenix in Jackson, Tennessee. Its a small town; people talk. During one club night, Young bought Stephanie two drinks and his friends handed them to her. It was a story her daughter told her about a time she got sick. His case before the nursing board stalled for two more years. Khazan: Does that change how you feel about him? Khazan: A lot of them, unfortunately, went with it. Throughout the opioid epidemic, a distressing number of doctors have seen a perverse opportunity in Americans suffering. (Topix has since been shut down.) #coffeeplease #noontime #rockrageradio www.rockrageradio.com You can all suck my dick! he yells at the camera in one Periscope video, a stethoscope around his neck and a cigar in his hand. He was found in his bedroom, where the ambulance service discovered an empty syringe under his pillow and empty pill bottles on his bedside table that had been filled that month. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? Without doing a physical exam, Young diagnosed MY with chronic lower-back pain and anxiety, the letter details. Young cared for all kinds of people, some of whom didnt have money or health insurance. Minutes after finishing the second drink, Stephanie fell face-first onto the floor. Khazan: The Rock Doc, Jeff Young, has been in jail for almost two years, awaiting trial. According to a medical-board report, one employee recalled Young having sex in his office with a patient who appeared to be drugged; when Young left, she was passed out on the couch. You can find Olgas written reporting on the Rock Doc at our website: http://www.theatlantic.com/experiment. Throughout Youngs year-long treatment of MY, Young failed to conduct pill counts, consult a state database meant to monitor the dispensing of controlled substances, and discuss with MY the risks of combining these drugs, according to the document. Not that half of the, you know powers that be are on some sort of whatever. In May 2019, shortly after Young was indicted, I traveled to Jackson to try to understand the place that gave rise to the Rock Doc. (Green, who has since cut ties with Young, would not comment on this when I reached him, but he told the Sun that he asked another officer to look up the information.). And doctorswho work in what is, after all, a service professionsometimes feel that its easier to pacify the patient than to push back. Young had an active channel on Periscope, where he and Phillips drank and waxed philosophical. ), Youngs sexual desires and need to please patients allegedly soon blurred together. From that day on, he saw him for everything. All right, guys. Young wanted information about one of his enemies. Khazan: He worked in the timber industry, and one day at work, he got overheated and disoriented. Khazan: The way I first got to know Jeff Young was through videos he posted online. In February 2016, he texted one of his opioid patients, a police officer named Jay Green. Yeah. In 2013, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic disorder that is usually accompanied by widespread pain and fatigue. I visited Youngs clinic, but, through a staffer, he declined to speak with me. When PreventaGenix closed, Young was alleged to have failed to pay part of the unemployment insurance, federal tax withholdings, and final payroll for the clinic, according to a lawsuit filed by his former partners, Reitz and Patel. (Lo-fi synthesizer music plays up. Khazan: The one that caught my eye was this guy named Jeff Young, a nurse practitioner who called himself the Rock Doc, quote-unquote. Never give up God is full of second chances, one woman wrote. Khazan: And some of what she saw really weirded her out. To get from pharma lab to medicine cabinet, the drug needed to pass through one of the most sacred spaces in America. And I was like, My mind is blown. By the end of this hearing, you will be asking what on Earth took the medical board so long, Pennebaker, the prosecutor, said in court. Listen to the trailer for, The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust. Do you feel safe with Mr. Young being out there? a prosecutor on the case, Andrew Pennebaker, asked Pickering in court. Naylor: I felt like he was being treated unfairlythat maybe he had even been set up. The sharpteeth charge through and run into the rock spire and fall down. In September 2014, Young, Reitz, and Patel opened their first clinic and called it PreventaGenix. Like, all these doctors who are really out of line and just writing so many scripts for so many addictive drugs, theyre really not being careful at all. Calles: Doctors judged me because of my weight. Khazan: Jeff and his friend Kevin would often head to Periscope to defend themselves. Calles: You could just tell by the demeanor that that was there. They painted a picture of the kind of medical office where you might actually want to hang out. So it just kind of, I guess, comforted me. Fullington, who was also let go, told me she got a threatening call from Young. Every time. Ballard: I dont believe Jeff overprescribed medication. Throughout Jackson, he had created for himself a reputation as a rock-and-roll renegade, happily showing off his piercings, tattoos, and goatee. Its often called the invisible illness, because, even though the pain is very real for the person experiencing it, some doctors dont take it seriously. Calles: I dont know. Have you ever been to a doctor and you just didnt feel comfortable? Khazan: Thirty-one doctors and seven other nurse practitioners were busted in that same Justice Department sweep that caught Jeff. But, in theory, there should have been a check on all this. I had a brother that passed away, and when he passed away, his friends played that for him at his funeral. As the nursing boards investigation of Young inched along, another agency launched its own probe into the Rock Doc. In 2018, a woman told police that Young put his hands down her pants during an office visit, but that apparently led to nothing. At first, Young seemed to Reitz like an affable, outgoing dad who loved rock and practiced medicine. Music by Parish Council (Dabbles), water feature (ariel), Arabian Prince in a UK World (The Feeling of Being on a Diet), Keyboard (Being There and My Atelier), and Column (The Art of Fun (Raj) and Sensuela), provided by Tasty Morsels. Country music lyrics, guitar tabs/tablatures, chords source #1. His vision was, evidently, to one day launch a reality series of the same name. The first move of any significant consequence for Young came in early 2017, when the DEA raided the clinic. One admitted that Young had flirted with her. He raises a glass filled with red wine, as if in a toast. (Patel did not respond to requests for comment.) (Court records do not contain the names of Youngs alleged victims.) Hed wandered off into the woods. His small fiefdom of followers created a mini echo chamber, feeding back approval and encouragement. So you got to be a good judge of character. It feels claustrophobic.). Dr. Jeff is married to Petra Mickova Petra though she is his second wife. He graduated from Union University, an evangelical Christian school, in 1995, then earned a degree from the University of Tennessee College of Nursing in 2003. On April 17, 2019, officials swept through Appalachia, charging 53 medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Its a shame, he told me, that Young got into so much legal trouble; think of all the people he might have helped. And the consequences might have gone beyond sexual abuse and addiction. Opioid manufacturers such as Endo, the maker of Opana, and Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, targeted high-volume providers, in particular generalists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, who generally had less expertise in pain management and were more receptive to marketing from sales consultants, according to a lawsuit filed by the state of Tennessee against Endo in May 2019. I mean, I worked at a bank for 15 years, and when youve worked at a bank and youve cashed checks, you have to judge people in two seconds. Khazan: Online, Jeff would get drunk and smoke cigars. Im in the middle of a life-saving procedure here. The self-proclaimed "Rock Doc" is accused of trading powerful . 1:07. 13.6k members in the AutoNewspaper community. To one patient, who he prescribed hydrocodone, amphetamines, and fentanyl, he said, I accept all insurance. Dan Reaves, a local radio host on whose show Young occasionally appeared as part of a marketing plan, described Young as medically gifted. Khazan: He had an account on Periscope, the live-streaming site. One young man told me he went to Youngs house that year to pay cash for a vial, knowing that a traditional doctor would be unlikely to prescribe testosterone to a healthy teenage boy. Patients would spend an hour or two in the waiting room, only to get a rushed exam and prescription. Naylor: (A sharp inhale.) On my trip, I strolled by a glass case near the federal courthouse that held a large Bible opened to the Gospel of John. (Stephanie asked me to use a pseudonym for her because she doesnt want her name associated with the case.) (Fades under.). Oh, look, I got a new haircut today (Fades under.). Hey! So it was kind of significant to me. Jeffrey Young wanted to give you a real look inside his clinic. Thats very distressing Yeah, Im shocked, you know? Longoria: The indictment against the Rock Doc alleges that he prescribed more than a million addictive pills, treated patients while intoxicated, and used his prescribing power to have sex with womenincluding women who were his patients. And hed stream from inside the clinic sometimes. Not all of them were into the whole edgy hard-rock thing at first. I just didnt feel comfortable. Young was indicted on drug-trafficking charges in April 2019. ], Oh, you look fine to me.. Khazan: LaRhonda was skepticalbut she was also dealing with a lot of pain. In another, he totters around with an empty bottle of bourbon and pans the camera over to Phillips, who is asleep on the couch. I dont I dont even know what to say. He was like a friend. The nurse practitioner Jeffrey Young produced a reality-TV pilot in which he branded himself "the Rock Doc., The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? He exhibited a certain tenderness as he filled syringes and sutured skin. He made them feel comfortable in a way that no other doctor did. You may not like what I stand for. (The music opens up into a technologic rainforest as synthesizers mimic birdsong.). But it seemed like she wasnt the only one getting pain meds from the Rock Doc. They didnt play Stairway to Heaven or have Periscope accounts. Off camera, Young allegedly prescribed 1.4 million addictive pills and had sex with female patients. Some of the doctors who have been accused of exchanging drugs for sex in recent years threatened patients that they would cut off their supply of painkillers if they didnt gratify them. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? Over that time, his online following grew. 2,760 Followers, 1,655 Following, 2,046 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Jeff Young II (JY2) #RockDoc (@jeffyoungii) Young put his name behind charity projects around town, took health insurance, and offered discounts for people who otherwise couldnt afford care. There were reports of after-hours partiespossibly of Jeff having sex with his patients. Theres actually a diagnosis called white-coat hypertension. Its when your blood pressure spikes in a doctors office because the whole experience is nerve-racking. If you speak against me, she remembers him saying, youre gonna regret it.. To a different patient, he wrote, Come fuck me at my office right now., It is not illegal for doctors to have sex with their patients, though its considered unethical. Federal prosecutors who charged him in a massive opioid bust say he overprescribed painkillers, often for money, notoriety, and sexual favors.. The DEA raided Jeffs clinic and seized all of his computers and thousands of doses of the opioid hydrocodone. Many of the people I interviewedincluding some of Youngs former patients and employeesasked to remain anonymous, often because they feared retribution at the hands of Young and his friends. Khazan: Like, for example, here he is sniffing a pair of womens underwear with his sidekick, a friend named Kevin. JACKSON, Tenn. The end is nowhere close for three medical professionals charged in a federal opioid crackdown earlier this year. Once again, there was an outpouring of support. When it was getting close to the end of when I was going, it would be packed. She appreciated that he asked about her grandkids. They didnt have tattoos. Doctors, in theory, would only prescribe to people who needed the drugs and would monitor patients so they wouldnt get addicted. Whatever the inspiration, his new persona was good for business. The pilot footagesome of which Young posted to YouTube, and some of which I obtained from a person who was once close to Youngportrays the Rock Doc as a medical bad boy whos willing to break free from the establishment to deliver real talk. Scott Deberry: Kinda made it start seeming like he was unprofessional. The cause of death, according to the letter, was a probable cardiac event due to polypharmacy, or the simultaneous use of multiple drugs.. American doctors went on to prescribe opioids at much higher rates than their counterparts in other countries. (Somber, reflective droning notes play up. Of the women who returned my calls, none wanted to speak on the record under her real name, but all denied that Young had sexually abused them. In fact, he avoided doctors at all costs. In 2020, had he not been indicted, he would have been allowed to petition to have his prescribing privileges reinstated, as long as he agreed to extra monitoring. Not that theyre not watching internet porn. 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