HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. -
Agents with the Sumner County Drug Task Force recently raided and shut down a Hendersonville weight loss clinic.
Officials said nurse practioner Sandra Jackson Iveson ran the operation and has since been taken into custody.
Investigators told Nashville's News 2 Investigates this long term investigation began after numerous tips about the operator and the clinic, including calls from area pharmacists who noticed a variety of red flags involving prescriptions and types of narcotics being prescribed.
On Monday afternoon, hand written signs saying, 'Closed,' hung on the door at the Optimal Wellness and Weigh Loss Center located on Main Street.
Undercover agents spoke exclusively to Nashville's News 2 Investigates about Iveson, the business owner.
"She goes under family practice and she does pain treatment and pain management and she does weight loss. We charged her under two statutes. Dispensing outside her licensure and registration law."
Authorities said both charges are considered felonies.
According to agents they served search warrants on the business and Iveson's Hendersonville home. The search yielded thousands of pills and medical supplies.
"We were sending informants in. They would say, ‘Hey do you mind, if I get some pills for say my wife?' and she would in turn give them so she was dispensing for someone not in her clinic," authorities said.
Agents said Iveson surrendered her DEA number before authorities left the Hendersonville practice.
"You have medication bottles labeled with a certain amount of phentermine in them. The bottles have no names on them, what she does is hand write in the name of the patient on the bottle itself. That means she is dispensing out of her own clinic. She basically did her own labels to put on these medicine bottles she is filling herself."
Drug agents credit area pharmacists to getting law enforcement involved.
"We got several calls from pharmacies, not just in Sumner County, but also Davidson County and even up into Montgomery County, they were flagging, ‘Why are we getting these scripts on her?' One of the things they were concerned about is Opana a schedule two pain pill. The DEA recommended dosage is two times a day. Some of her patients, she was giving four times a day. That's a hefty dose in addition to the other narcotics she was prescribing in addition to the opana."
Nashville News 2 Investigates called the State Health Department which said Iveson holds an active license in advanced practiced nursing.
She obtained that license in 2004 and it expires on September 30, 2012.
"She has a license and it is used to pass controlled substances to addicts basically," The drug agent added.
Iveson was booked into the Sumner County Jail on a $10,000 bond.
