The modest clinic on Milpas Street in laid-back Santa Barbara , California , was well known to patients seeking powerful pain medication . They went there to find the `` Candy Man . '' Dr. Julio Diaz earned that nickname because , according to court records , he was writing prescriptions for massive numbers of pills -- hundreds , even thousands , at a time . He prescribed medications like oxycodone , a powerful opioid pain killer that is highly addictive . At the nearby Cottage Hospital , emergency room doctors noticed a pattern and sensed a problem . `` We communicate first with our patients and then with the primary care providers . We then began to see that there was a pattern and that clearly by far Dr. Diaz 's prescribing stood out above any of the other physicians in the computer , '' Dr. Chris Lambert said . Lambert found that Cottage Health documented more than 400 emergency room visits from Diaz 's patients , according to court documents . Some were clearly dependent on opiates , he said , and others were seeking more pain medication . `` And of course we saw the complications , too , '' Lambert noted . Those complications included symptoms of severe drug withdrawal and overdoses . The Medical Board of California , and eventually the Drug Enforcement Administration , were called to investigate . That investigation resulted in a laundry list of charges against Diaz including the over-prescription of narcotics , prescribing narcotics when there was no medical need , and illegal distribution of a narcotic to a person under the age of 21 . According to the DEA , there were a dozen overdose deaths associated with Diaz . Twenty-seven-year-old Adam Montgomery was one of them . Montgomery started seeing Diaz after he injured his back on a construction job . He was seeking pain medication . He got it , and soon he was hooked . As the months went by , Montgomery 's parents noticed a change . `` Well , at some point , he started spending a lot of time in bed . And just watching TV , never doing anything , '' Adam 's father , Robert Montgomery said . `` And that seemed to get worse and worse . And then I noticed the color change in his face , his attitude , his love toward his family ... That all went away . '' Montgomery slowly became aware that his son was addicted to oxycodone , and he called Diaz . `` I was seeing paperwork with hundreds of oxycodone pills , '' Montgomery told CNN . `` I wanted to know why he was giving him so many . '' He says he never got an answer . In an affidavit , the DEA alleges that in the six weeks before Adam Montgomery 's death , Diaz prescribed him a total of 2,087 pills , an average of 63 pills a day . On the day after Thanksgiving in 2011 , Montgomery received the news that his son had died of a drug overdose . In Adam Montgomery 's bedroom and car , investigators found bottles of multiple drugs , and some were empty . All were prescribed by Diaz . The autopsy concluded that a cocktail of oxycodone , hydromorphone , alprazolam and methadone was the cause of death . `` Right now we have more people that are dying from prescription opioids than cocaine and heroin combined , '' said Robert Hill , a DEA special agent with years of experience on the front lines of the war on drugs . Hill says that in 2011 , the most recent year for which there are statistics , more than 22,000 people died from prescription drugs . Late last year , Diaz signed a plea agreement , admitting to a reduced number of charges . Those charges include the illegal distribution of oxycodone , hydromorphone , alprazolam and fentanyl . The original charges against him carried a maximum sentence of 200 years in prison and up to $ 10 million in fines , but the plea bargain will likely reduce that sentence . CNN contacted Diaz 's attorney , but received no comment . Diaz awaits sentencing . To this day , Montgomery 's parents struggle with the what-ifs . Had he known then what he knows now , `` I might have been able to save him , but I was more disappointed in him -- in making these bad decisions , '' Robert Montgomery said . `` But it was n't him , it was the drugs that changed him . So I just turned my back on him , and I would n't do that today . '' How safe are your prescription drugs ? Prescription drugs 'orphan ' children in eastern Kentucky .
Dr. Julio Diaz awaiting sentencing on charges including illegal drug distribution . Adam Montgomery , 27 , became addicted to prescription drugs and later died . DEA alleges Diaz prescribed him more than 2,000 pills in the six weeks before his death .