I got curious and found another one. Same old, same old.

Substance Abuse
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Posted on Tue, Feb. 25, 2003

Pharmacist gets jail for drug dealing
Arthur Kazman, 56, illegally sold two types of painkillers. He blamed his own addiction.
By Larry King
Inquirer Staff Writer

A Bucks County pharmacist was sentenced to prison yesterday after admitting he sold potent painkillers without prescriptions.

Arthur Kazman, 56, of Holland, who blamed his own addiction for his behavior, was ordered to serve two to four years for illegally distributing Vicodin and OxyContin to a police informant last summer.

Kazman's pharmacy in Buckingham Township had become a magnet for seekers of ill-gotten prescription drugs, prosecutors contended. The small total he was caught selling - about 100 pills - was "undoubtedly the tip of the iceberg," Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Henry said yesterday in Bucks County Court.

Kazman pleaded guilty to possession and delivery of controlled substances, to not filing monthly drug distribution reports with the state, and to two counts of driving under the influence.

He told Judge John Rufe that he had been addicted to prescription drugs since suffering back injuries in a 1991 automobile accident.

The drugs left him woozy and prone to blackouts and bad judgment at work, Kazman said. In giving people painkillers illegally, "I understood their pain, and I tried to help them," he told the judge.

By the spring of 2001, court records say, police informants had begun pointing to Kazman as a source for drug abusers.

"I strayed. I went over the lines when I became addicted," Kazman said. "In my clouded mind, I made some very poor choices. That's an explanation, not an excuse."

Rufe's sentence was the minimum required under Pennsylvania law for Kazman's offenses. The judge permitted Kazman to serve his time at the Bucks County prison, instead of a state facility. Rufe also made Kazman eligible for house arrest after he completes the first six months of his sentence.

After his arrest in November, Kazman said he attempted suicide. That landed him in a locked psychiatric unit at Warminster Hospital for 10 days, followed by 44 days in a secure drug-rehabilitation center.

Since then, he has lived in a halfway house in Levittown. He said he would like to become a counselor someday.

Kazman almost certainly will not work again as a pharmacist, Henry said. His felony conviction means an automatic 10-year suspension of his state license.

"This case was frightening, given the defendant's position of trust and the fact that he provided the public with medications at the same time he was addicted to them," Henry said after the sentencing. "This ensures that will not happen again."

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Contact staff writer Larry King at 215-345-0446 or