Georgescu Drinks the "Portsmouth Cocktail"

"Dr. Victor Georgescu told investigators he was scared by goings-on at Greater Medical (Wheelersburg, Ohio) but needed the work because he had been fired from four previous jobs after suffering a stroke, according to a 2010 request for a search warrant during an investigation of more than two years.

"'You don't like what you were doing here?' Kevin Kineer, an investigator with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, asked the doctor.

"'Right,' Georgescu responded.

"'You know it's wrong?' the agent said.

"'Yes,' the doctor said."

(Andrew Welsh-Huggins, "Documents: Ohio 'Pill Mill' Was Corrupt Drug Den," cnsnews.com)


Dr. Georgescu, the doctor at Greater Medical Advance in Wheelersburg, and the clinic operator, George Adkins, were each charged with engaging in corrupt activity, conspiracy to engage in corrupt activity, funding drug trafficking and permitting drug abuse, for running a "pill mill" out of the clinic.


Dr. Victor Georgescu frequently wrote prescriptions that lasted longer and with higher and stronger dosages than other doctors. During one nine-month stretch more than 14,000 prescriptions were written.

Georgescu was scheduled to go on trial on September 17. He had been free on $150,000 bond and had surrendered his passport

But, Georgescu — the physician who operated out of the last pain clinic in Scioto County — was found dead August 4.

The Liberty, Ohio Police Department received a call from Super 8 Motel on Saturday. The caller advised police a subject in Room No. 122 was lying on the floor and was unresponsive. Liberty Fire as well as two patrolmen responded to the scene, and it was determined the male subject had died.


“Right now we are treating this as a drug related death," Trumbull County Coroner, Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, said. "Drug tests, or toxicology usually takes about eight weeks turn around time. So we’ll know more when the drug testing comes back in about eight weeks."


According to the police report, an empty bottle of 90 proof vodka, and a cup used to mix prescription medication, were found in the room.

According to reports, Georgescu left no suicide note. I am very interested in knowing the actual circumstances concerning Georgescu's death. Why am I interested? This doctor openly admitted his wrongdoing to the press upon his arrest, before the trial ever started. He confessed to his involvement with criminal enterprises while experiencing what he described as his own desperate financial times.

Yet despite his inevitable arrest, the doctor continued to prescribe at the Wheelersburg pill mill while reportedly fearing for his own life. He continued to dispense the area's standard deadly dosage of prescription drugs known as the Portsmouth cocktail, and, in doing so, he became the last target of the DEA and the State of Ohio in the highly publicized fight against ten pill mills in Scioto County.


Georgescu's death leaves many unanswered questions about the operations of illegal prescription drug operations and the involvement of others in the criminal hierarchy. I believe the man may have chosen to end his life because he faced severe consequences by testifying in court. Perhaps threats against his family and friends made him choose suicide.


I believe the doctor, himself, may have been an addict to the poisonous dosages of his practice. If so, had he lost all ability to control his actions? Was the man a human being without a conscience due to years of abuse and loss of self control? After all, he chose prescription drugs and alcohol as the means of ending his miserable life.

I can make no sound conclusions without further evidence. I can only speculate and wonder why even the best can choose to wager their souls for blood money. A troubled Judas, Victor Georgescu became involved in something so sinister that it eventually consumed him. His scapegoat was an unfortunate stroke, but something more surely must have caused him to betray his ethics and continue to practice what he knew was evil. He became an anti-physician who cared nothing about relieving the pain of others. Instead, he willingly dispensed poison that caused untold pain and death.


I wonder what he thought during his last minutes of consciousness on earth. Did he believe suicide would condemn him to eternal suffering in hell? Did he believe going to hell was a proper fate for the wrongs he had done? Did he confess his sins and ask God for forgiveness? Did he even care about anything other than escaping his horrible life? Was he defiant and bold to the end or was he frightened and seeking desperate refuge?

It might be easy to bury a man like Victor Georgescu and attempt to forget he ever existed. Still, I believe there is much to be learned from his demise. I pray more information will come to light.

Richard Cory

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

By Edwin Arlington Robinson

        
Luke 22:3-6

"Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him (Jesus) to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd."

Matthew 27:3-5

"When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 'I have sinned,' he said, 'for I have betrayed innocent blood.'

“'What is that to us?' they replied. 'That’s your responsibility.'

"So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself."