A PERTH woman, who's identity changed frequently over the years, managed to access "tens of thousands" of MS Contin tablets, containing various amounts of morphine by doctor-shopping throughout the city, according to a report in The West Australian, and lending support to the argument that doctor-shopping is the main issue around supply of controlled drugs.
Brenda Lee-anne Dawson was known to doctors and pharmacists all over Perth as Marika Johnson, Tara Brooks, Leanne Atkins, Deirdre Wiston and Christina Passmore, using stolen identities.
WA's District Court heard last week about the exploits of the 43-year-old who was convicted of offering to sell drugs and attempting to make them.
It was revealed that she had sold the drugs to other users and dealers or had them cooked into "homebaked heroin" by her partner Martin Trubka to feed both their habits.
Judge Ronald Birmingham was also told that as one of Perth's most prolific doctor shoppers, from 2005 to 2011, Dawson attended 741 medical appointments under six different identities, which resulted in 710 prescriptions and 35,754 of the pills being prescribed, at a cost to authorities of nearly $100,000.
Dawson and her partner will be sentenced next month.
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