'Candyman' doctor arrested on drug charges

MURRAY — He was known on the streets by some as "The Candyman," or the person whom you could always go to if you needed prescription drugs.

Wednesday, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office along with agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Utah Attorney General's Office arrested Dr. Warren Randolph Stack following a year-long undercover investigation and booked him into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of six counts of illegal distribution of a controlled substance and two counts of arranging to distribute a controlled substance.

And authorities said the investigation into the doctor's practice is ongoing.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Robby Russo said Stack has prescribed at least 3-and-a-half million painkiller pills, such as Oxycontin, since 2001.

"That's a staggering number," Russo said.

The investigation began when sheriff's detectives in the Cottonwood Heights precinct started to run across several drivers involved in injury accidents were impaired because of prescription drug use.

Their prescriptions all came back to the same physician. About the same time, the sheriff's office started to receive complaints from the professional licensing regulators and pharmacies that noticed an extremely large number of pills being prescribed, Russo said.

"Ninety to 100 Hydrocodone pills at a time is irresponsible," he said.

Undercover officers set up appointments with the physician. Each complained of injuries that were never verified. Some injuries were as simple as a sore wrist from golfing, but they would still obtain a prescription for narcotic painkillers, Russo said.

Agents arrived at the doctor's office, near 5000 South and 900 East, about 1 p.m. Wednesday with a search warrant. When they got there, the waiting room was so full that people were sitting on the floor. Neighbors say that ever since the doctor moved his office from West Valley to Murray a month ago, the business complex he worked out of was constantly packed with "patients."

After his arrested, Stack was led to a waiting police car in handcuffs. When asked by reporters for comment, he dryly asked them to put the top up on his convertible.

Russo said the investigators will be cross referencing the doctor's deceased patients with unattended deaths in the valley.

"This is very significant," Sheriff Jim Winder said of the scope of the investigation.

Anyone who may have been a patient of Stack or knows someone who was, is asked to call the sheriff's office at 743-7000.

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