A physician from Kingwood, Texas, has been sentenced to 12 and a half years in federal prison after admitting to operating what federal prosecutors called a cash-only pill mill. The doctor, identified as Maryam Qayum, ran the scheme out of her clinic, Recare Health Clinic. Prosecutors say the operation flooded the community with opioids before it was ultimately shut down.
The scale of the prescribing was enormous. According to prosecutors, the clinic issued more than 3 million opioid pills over the course of the operation. Investigators say those prescriptions were written for no real medical purpose, turning what was presented as a medical practice into a pipeline for highly addictive drugs.
Court documents indicate the case involved far more than a single doctor. Prosecutors say the operation also included someone who acted as a security guard, a nurse practitioner, and two people described as low-level drug dealers who functioned as what were referred to as 'providers.' Those individuals allegedly obtained the prescriptions and brought in the patients whose names were used.
The prescriptions were frequently funneled through the same pharmacy, according to court documents. Two of the people named in the case were identified as employees of that pharmacy, where the pills were distributed. Officials say the arrangement helped the scheme keep running smoothly by tying the prescribing and the dispensing together.
Investigators say the pill mill operated between 2022 and 2025 before it was dismantled. The involvement of multiple people across the clinic and the pharmacy, prosecutors suggest, is a large part of why the operation was able to continue for as long as it did before being uncovered and prosecuted.
Legal analyst Chris Tritico said cases like this have become far less common than they once were. He explained that when the opioid crisis erupted roughly 10 to 15 years ago, every state enacted laws limiting how many opioids a doctor can prescribe per patient, specifically to prevent patients from becoming addicted to the strong, highly addictive pills. Because of those strict limits, he said, a physician can no longer prescribe the large volumes that were once possible.
That tightening of the rules is why Tritico said he rarely sees prosecutions of this kind anymore, even if they are not completely unheard of. The sentencing of the Kingwood physician stands out as an example of the type of large-scale opioid operation that regulators worked to stamp out after the height of the crisis, and one that authorities say fueled the flow of dangerous drugs that can prove deadly.