Feds: Pharmacy worker took opioids meant for terminally ill

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A one-time pharmacy worker who pleaded guilty to taking opioid painkillers that were meant for terminally ill patients is going to prison.

U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor sentenced 30-year-old Johnathan William Click to five years in prison Wednesday.

A statement from prosecutors says Click worked at ContinuumRx of Central Alabama, a Birmingham-based pharmacy that prepared bags of intravenous painkillers meant for dying patients in debilitating pain.

The company mainly supplied five hospice organizations, and Click was accused of diluting the opioid medication intended for the IV bags and taking the painkillers to feed his own addiction.

He was the company’s lead technician at the time.

Court documents say Click hid what he was doing from the company and somehow passed multiple rounds of drug-screening tests.