Pill mill doc, 79, gets 5-year prison term

A 79-year-old doctor was sentenced to five years in prison today for running a pill mill out of his North Philadelphia medical practice.

Lewis Meyer Jacobs pleaded guilty on Sept. 15 to federal charges of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute, and actual distribution of controlled substances, including OxyContin and Percocets.

Besides the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge J. Curtis Joyner ordered Jacobs to pay $328,000 in restitution to the IRS and to forfeit the $1.26 million he made illegally between 2005 and 2010.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Jacobs admitted selling sham prescriptions to drug dealers and addicts, typically charging $50 for each script.

He also paid a drug-dealing office employee in prescriptions and issued prescriptions to a drug-dealing paramour.

Jacobs surrendered immediately to begin serving his sentence.