New Jersey “Candy Man” Doctor Gets Six Years

            Remember that song from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, where the candy jockey roams around his store, singing about all the wonders that candy can bring, delighting the children? Well, it seems like the Candy Man had found even more tools at his disposal: oxycodone, Percocet, codeine, and benzodiazepines.

            At least, those were the tools of Robert Delagente (48), the aptly named “Candy Man,” who worked as a doctor in Oakland, New Jersey, where he wrote prescriptions for opioids without a medical reason. On May 2, Delagente was sentenced to six years for prescribing opioids along with three years of supervision post his release.

            According to NBC New York, Delagente would ask patients what strength of medication they would want along with the dosage, along with providing dangerous combinations of powerful opioids. For many of his patients, he never actually even met with them.

            “El Chapo of Opioids” as he called himself, Delagente was arrested in May of 2019 on the charges along with the additional charges of altering medical records. He has been criticized by many in the legal and medical spheres alike for his reckless endangerment of the patients who came to him for help, along with failing to monitor patients and their addictions according to the New York Post.