Spokane Man Faces Drug Charges

A Spokane man was arrested at a Hayden pharmacy earlier this week after he allegedly bought prescription medication using a false patient name.

Arthur B. Pratt, 33, was booked into the Kootenai County Jail on a charge of possessing a controlled substance by fraud.

A woman called Medicine Man Pharmacy on Monday to order the drug hydrocodone using the patient name Linda Brandt, a Drug Enforcement Agency prescription number and Dr. Lamont Murdoch as the requesting physician, according to a Kootenai County sheriff’s report.

Pharmacy employees, who received a notice from their corporate office warning about a group committing prescription fraud using the same method, became suspicious and called deputies.

Officers were watching the counter when Pratt picked up the prescription and arrested him.

Murdoch had told police in Spokane he suspected someone was using his name to fill prescriptions, the report said.

Deputies have not determined who the woman was who called in the prescription.

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.