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A former New York assemblyman and a dozen pain clinic workers were arrested on Friday, accused of operating some of the largest “pill mills” in the northeastern United States and illegally prescribing more than 6 million opioid pills, law enforcement officials said.

Alec Brook-Krasny, who served in the New York State Assembly from 2006 to 2015 representing South Brooklyn, was charged with conspiracy and scheming to defraud by unlawfully selling prescriptions, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York division said in a statement.

Also arrested in the sweep of three pain clinics were at least one nurse practitioner, three physician’s assistants, and two doctors including Dr. Lazar Feygin, who owned two of the clinics, the Drug Enforcement agency said. Brook-Krasny and Feygin could not be reached for comment.

They were accused of over-prescribing oxycodone, a prescription opioid, to clinic patients who showed signs of selling pills or abusing other narcotics.

The agency said that in exchange for oxycodone, the defendants also pressured patients to undergo unnecessary medical tests and procedures, then billed Medicare and Medicaid for millions of dollars.

“The fusion of pill mill and Medicaid mill harmed countless people throughout the region, while Feygin and his co-defendants lined their pockets with taxpayer dollars,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor For the City of New York Bridget Brennan, who helped lead the investigation, said in a statement.

The continuing investigation began in 2013. Friday’s arrests came at a time of heightened concern over drug abuse in the United States.

The use of opioids, which include prescription painkillers and street drugs like heroin, has reached epidemic levels in the country, quadrupling since 1999 and currently contributing to roughly 90 deaths a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Brook-Krasny was accused of conspiring with the clinics to misuse or alter patients’ urine tests to help the businesses continue over-prescribing opioids while he was “affiliated” with a medical testing facility, the Drug Enforcement agency said.

The 6 million pills were worth $60 million to $100 million, the agency said.

The drug addiction crisis has led to a crackdown on doctors and pain clinics accused of over-prescribing opioids to patients, who can become dependent on the addictive painkillers. People heavily addicted to prescription opioid pills often turn to cheaper heroin.

Heroin use has risen five-fold in the past decade, with the biggest increases among whites and low-income men, according to research by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

The nation’s opioid problem has prompted law enforcement departments to carry the opioid overdose antidote naloxone.

Last week, President Donald Trump said he would create an anti-opioid abuse task force led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whose state has been among the hardest-hit by the rise in opioid abuse.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney)

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Ian McKellen opened up about the challenges of growing up gay in a poignant short film. 

The 77-year-old actor, who can currently be seen as Cogsworth in Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” reboot, reflected on his early struggles to filmmaker Joe Stephenson in the four-minute clip, which can be viewed above. The film is featured at London’s Tate Britain museum as part of its “Queer British Art 1861-1967” exhibit, which opened Wednesday.  

McKellen said that when he was growing up, “gay people, homosexuals, conducted their lives as secretly as possible. There was nobody who was out ― nobody.” When family members would ask him about girlfriends, the actor said he would “blush inwardly,” because he “didn’t want one.” 

“When my own attraction to other boys was taking place, it seemed very natural to me. … I was aware that it didn’t really fit in with what everybody else had been doing,” McKellen said.

In the end, he even credited his sexuality with his decision to pursue a career in acting. “I think one of the reasons I was happy to become a professional actor was that I suspected I would meet some gay people. It was an easy way to do that,” he said.  

The “Lord of the Rings” star, who came out in 1988 in a BBC Radio interview, said he didn’t feel driven to be active in the fight for LGBTQ equality at first. All of that’s changed in recent years, of course, because he “doesn’t want today’s children to not enjoy their sexuality.” 

“It’s central to what you are,” he said.

For the latest in LGBTQ news, check out the Queer Voices newsletter. 

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The TCM Classic Film Fest opened Thursday with a 50th anniversary screening of “In the Heat of the Night,” the classic film adaptation starring Sidney Poitier and the late Rod Steiger that follows a homicide in a Mississippi town and the violent racism it unearths. 

Before the screening, TCM personality Ben Mankiewicz hosted a discussion with “Heat” director Norman Jewison, producer Walter Mirisch and actor Lee Grant. Poitier was in attendance, but remained in the audience. 

Mirisch revealed that because of the famous scene in which Poitier’s character “returns” a slap in the face to a white plantation owner (which does not appear in the 1965 novel), Hollywood producers strongly considered not making “Heat” altogether. But Mirisch emphasized that they “never gave up on it” and recognized the scene had to stay because it was the heart of the picture. 

Determined to make the film, Mirisch even proposed a hypothetical to a Hollywood producer who feared the movie would be “responsible for starting riots”: Suppose it never screened below the Mason-Dixon line? Mirisch knew that plenty of people in cities in the Northern region would want to view the film and he didn’t need to wholly rely on a Southern audience to boost its financial (and critical) success.

The reluctant producer ran some figures after Mirisch’s proposal and ultimately offered a $2 million budget, so long as Mirisch promised to give him “his best.”

Of course, the movie did in fact prove to be one of Mirisch’s best films and went on to earn five Academy Awards, including 1968’s Best Picture. Beyond that, it remains a cultural legacy, touching upon still-relevant subjects like abortion, racism and economic hardships in the Deep South. 

Oh, and it introduced us to one of the most iconic film quotes ever.

Famously, Poitier was not nominated for Best Actor for “Heat.” Steiger, who played the bigoted Southern police chief opposite Poitier, was nominated in that category and won the award. 

The TCM Classic Film Fest runs through April 9 in Los Angeles with various screenings and discussions. 

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