LEXINGTON, Ky. — Two-and-a-half years after the clinic he helped manage was raided by authorities, a former Paintsville doctor has pleaded guilty federal drug charges.

Don Bryson served as medical consultant for Appalachian Family Medicine, despite having previously surrendered his medical license following an investigation into his prescribing of controlled substances. Appalachian Family Medicine typically saw large numbers of patients who paid $75 in cash to get prescriptions for opioid painkillers.

Because Bryson did not have a license, the clinic would use doctors from a temp agency, usually on a short-term basis. But Bryson and the owner of the clinic would maintain control of the practice, restricting the use of urine tests or pill counts and discouraging the doctors from reducing the patient dosages.

After one doctor left in September of 2021, a new doctor was brought in, but the new doctor did not have a DEA registration number that would allow him to write prescriptions for controlled substances. Bryson has admitted authorizing the new doctor to use the previous doctor’s registration number to write prescriptions.

Over a four-day period, the doctor wrote 79 prescriptions for more than 6,900 pills using the previous doctor’s registration number, until the temp agency discovered what was happening.

Bryson was in U.S. District Court in Lexington on Thursday to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to distribute Schedule II controlled substances. He now faces up to 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines. He has also agreed to forfeit more than $124,000 that was seized from four bank accounts, along with a 2020 Dodge Ram truck and the 10th Street building where the clinic was housed.

He will be back in court for sentencing Sept. 23.