PENSACOLA, Fla. — A Pensacola doctor’s recent arrest marks the fifth pill mill case in Northwest Florida within the last two years.
WEAR News reported Wednesday that 58-year-old Edward Scott Morrison of Pensacola Beach faces 41 counts in a federal indictment where he’s accused of illegally distributing controlled substances. A mugshot has not been released.
The Department of Justice says this arrest was part of their national healthcare fraud takedown where 90 doctors across the country were arrested.
“I think it’s despicable,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons says. “When you’re charged with the care of an individual, then you abuse that for your own good, then I think that is despicable.”
Prior to Morrison, the four recent cases are:
Sheriff Simmons says these medical professionals are contributing to the Northwest Florida’s opioid crisis.
“Imagine you have an individual that shouldn’t be getting pills or shouldn’t be given the amount they were given,” he said. “It’s either one or two things — it’s either going to them to abuse or overdose on or it’s going to others in the community for them to abuse and overdose on.”
Morrison’s indictment accuses him of prescribing more than 25,000 controlled substance pills without determining if there was a legitimate medical purpose or reviewing a patient’s history or prescribing records.
The allegations stretch from 2020 to 2025.
The indictment also states Morrison prescribed pills to patients without doing physical exams or maintaining records of prescriptions.
“I’ve seen this a bunch of times. My reaction is that this is crazy,” Sheriff Simmons says. “These are professionals, these are physicians and they know what they’re doing. They’re prescribing drugs knowing what the harms could be.”
Morrison was allowed to work at multiple medical institutions across Northwest Florida.
He worked as a contract ER doctor at HCA Florida West Hospital up until February 2022 when his contract wasn’t renewed.
Baptist Hospital says Morrison was a contract employee at the ER on 9 Mile Road from August 2024 to December 2025, when his contract wasn’t renewed.
Ascension Sacred Heart declined to respond to our questions.
“The motivation, it must be pretty strong,” Sheriff Simmons says. “But I can simply tell you there’s no reason for this. You know other people are being apprehended, caught and incarcerated for these things and still do it. I have little sympathy for those types of people.”
Morrison has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He was released with a GPS monitor and ordered to not prescribe any medications.
If convicted, Morrison faces up to 20 years in prison on each count.