Nurse practitioner suspended over prescribing and using opiates

HELENA – The Montana Board of Nursing has suspended the license of a nurse practitioner after he acknowledged prescribing large amounts of oxycodone to a patient which the two then shared.

A complaint was filed against Troy Warling in June 2016 after doctors in Hamilton treated a patient for opiate withdrawal. The patient reported his arrangement with Warling, who was practicing in Missoula.

Warling said he wrote prescriptions for oxycodone and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and bought pills from the patient for about 18 months. An investigation found the drug sharing went on for 28 months and involved nearly 37,000 oxycodone pills.

The board said Warling acknowledged a history of addiction including prescribing opiates to friends in 2010 on the condition that they shared with him. He also sought addiction treatment several times.

Warling’s license was suspended on March 30 pending further proceedings.