Double-dealing doc?

Dr. Anand Persaud, 44, an internist with practices on Atlantic Avenue in Baldwin and in Jamaica, Queens, was arrested last week and charged with criminally distributing prescription painkillers.

According to State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, Persaud, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment July 30, was one of the top five prescribers of narcotic painkillers in the state. Schneiderman also charged that Persaud — who was led out of his Baldwin office in handcuffs last week while astonished patients looked on — maintained a “two-tiered practice,” charging those with legitimate medical concerns $110, and those seeking prescriptions for pain pills like oxycodone, $250 or more.

Persaud, Schneiderman maintained, sold oxycodone prescriptions “without providing medical documentation or conducting a medical examination” on two occasions: Nov. 13, 2012, and March 19, 2013. State law prohibits doctors from prescribing oxycodone, a schedule II-b controlled narcotic substance, in such a manner. Persaud faces two counts of criminally selling controlled substances and could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

“It’s unconscionable that a doctor, a trusted licensed professional, would violate his professional duties and abuse his license to traffic in prescriptions for narcotics,” said Schneiderman. “My office will hold accountable those who contribute to the growth of the prescription drug abuse epidemic in New York state.”

On the heels of the conviction of another Baldwin doctor, William Conway, who was recently found guilty of writing thousands of painkiller prescriptions and is now awaiting sentencing, New York’s problem with the overprescription of narcotic painkillers has come into sharp relief.