Former Guyana health minister sentenced in US for running 'pill mill'

NEW YORK, USA -- Noel Blackman, who practiced as a medical doctor and was the former health minister of Guyana and executive member of the World Health Organization, has been sentenced to 50 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release for illegally distributing oxycodone, a highly addictive prescription painkiller.


Additionally, United States District Judge Joanna Seybert ordered Blackman to forfeit $536,200 in illegal proceeds. The sentence followed the defendant’s guilty plea on August 24, 2016.

Noel Blackman

Between 2015 and 2016, Blackman prescribed more than 365,000 30-milligram oxycodone pills from “pain management” clinics that he worked out of in Queens, Long Island and Brooklyn.

During his guilty plea remarks before Judge Seybert last August, Blackman admitted that, in exchange for $300 cash payments, he wrote oxycodone prescriptions for 1,920 pills of 30 milligram oxycodone dosages to persons whom he knew had no legitimate medical need for that highly-addictive drug. As described in court papers, that amount of oxycodone was worth up to $57,600 on the street.

According to court filings, on February 7, 2016, HSI agents removed Blackman from a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Guyana and arrested him in connection with the illegal distribution of oxycodone.

At the time of his arrest, more than $30,000 was found concealed in Blackman’s luggage. Following his arrest, Blackman admitted that he believed that some of his patients were addicted to oxycodone.

Blackman has forfeited his medical license and will no longer be allowed to practice medicine in the United States.

“Prescribing ‘oxys’ in exchange for cash is no different than a street dealer’s hand to hand drug transaction; both are illegal and fuel drug misuse in our communities,” stated James J. Hunt, Special Agent-in-Charge of the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division.