Maryland dentist to serve 10 years for pill-splitting scheme with assistant
A Baltimore County dentist was sentenced to 10 years in prison after illegally distributing an opioid to one of his former employees over the course of three years.
According to the Office of Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (OAG), Dr. Andrew T. Fried, DMD, a licensed dentist who owned a solo practice dental office in Nottingham, Maryland, pleaded guilty to the following charges in November:
- one count of distributing narcotics
- and one count of prescribing controlled dangerous substances outside the regular course of duties of a dentist and not within the standards of his profession related to controlled dangerous substances.
Dr. Fried prescribed Oxycodone without a legitimate reason to a former employee who worked as an assistant at Perry Hall Family Dental from April 2022 to May 2025.
Dr. Fried admitted that he and the former assistant would split the pills between themselves and that he purchased them weekly from his assistant, who got them from close family members, according to a press release from the OAG.
On Friday, AG Brown announced the charges, stating, "Every Marylander who sits in a dental chair should trust that they're receiving competent, professional care...This sentence protects Dr. Fried's patients from further unsafe treatment and eliminates a source of opioids in our communities."
Baltimore opioid crisis
Oxycodone is a strong prescription painkiller that is classified as a Schedule II-Controlled Substance due to its risk of addiction, illness, and, in some cases, death.
The drug is meant to be distributed by healthcare professionals to treat moderate to severe pain when other pain medicines aren't sufficient; however, the pills can, at times, be found on the street.
In 2019, police arrested a man after discovering 38 pills of suspected Oxycodone during a traffic stop in Glen Burnie.
In 2018, a licensed pharmacist pleaded guilty to distributing oxycodone in exchange for sexual favors.
Baltimore's ongoing opioid epidemic is a priority for city leaders.
In October, city leaders met to discuss ways to address Baltimore's open-air drug market after three mass overdose incidents had taken place in the Penn North neighborhood over a span of four months.