Rizio and Nelson California Law Blog

Marijuana In The News

When we think about marijuana’s negative connotations, we envision prison cells for drug use, selling marijuana, growing the drug, and maybe even selling or forging prescriptions for it. There rarely come visions of wildfire when we mention the phrase “marijuana problems,” but this can actually be a major concern in the state of California. Case in point: Just this year people have...

How can someone be convicted of Prescription Fraud?

The California criminal jury instructions (CALJIC) outlines the elements required to convict a person for prescription forgery. CALJIC 12.05 states that: “In order to prove this crime, each of the following elements must be proved: 1. A person forged/altered/issued/uttered a form for the prescription of drugs; and 2. As forged/altered issued/uttered the prescription was for [a narcotic drug]. Alternatively, 1....

What is prescription forging?

Prescription forging is against the law. By definition, it is the illegal acquisition of pharmaceuticals for personal use or profit. Prescription fraud is committed in many ways, including but not limited to visiting multiple doctors to receive multiple prescriptions, and forging the prescription to increase the quantity. The biggest factor driving prescription fraud is increased abuse and addiction...

About Prescription Drug Abuse

Approximately 20% of Americans (according to The National Institute on Drug Abuse report) have used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes at some point in their lives. With the increased availability of prescription drugs over the internet, and the surprising increase in senior citizen trafficking of prescription drugs, combined with the high incidence of overdoses by users of illegally obtained...