Lyons Pharmacist Gets Prison Time, Pays $55,000 To Community For Opioid Sales

(AP Photo)
Opioid tablets.
Photo: Opioid Tablets (AP)
Opioid tablets.

A Colorado pharmacist who pleaded guilty to illegally selling prescription painkillers has been sentenced to six months in prison and must pay $55,000 toward state programs helping crime victims and addicts.

Colorado U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn's office prosecuted the case. Officials say the financial penalty is the first of its kind in Colorado's federal court district and among the first nationally intended to help people with substance addictions.

According to court documents, Mary Aronson sold oxycodone and amphetamine pills to a confidential informant without a prescription at least three times in 2017 and 2018 as investigators recorded their conversation. She owned a pharmacy in Lyons.

Aronson pleaded guilty in March to illegal distribution of narcotics and was sentenced Tuesday.

Online records show Colorado regulators canceled Aronson's pharmacist license in January.