April 4, 2019
Physician battles back from pill addiction
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
BHG News Service
BHG News Service
A doctor. Married. Three children. Outwardly happy.
For Melanie Weiss, she checked all the boxes.
Until she left her optometry practice between patients to enter a nearby home to steal pain pills. Detectives had been investigating Watertown, S.D. break-ins and, on a tip from someone concerned about Weiss, she was arrested outside the home.
“Here I am this respected eye doctor in this town I grew up in … and I’m walking into people’s homes.”
Weiss told her story March 26 to 270 5th through high school Garrison and White Shield students.
Her story started 10 years before her September 2016 arrest. Three surgeries within a short time came with pain pill prescriptions.
The UND graduate was admittedly tough but she took the pills, and then upped her dose and her addiction grew to the point of stealing pills from family, friends and eventually unsuspecting neighbors.
For Melanie Weiss, she checked all the boxes.
Until she left her optometry practice between patients to enter a nearby home to steal pain pills. Detectives had been investigating Watertown, S.D. break-ins and, on a tip from someone concerned about Weiss, she was arrested outside the home.
“Here I am this respected eye doctor in this town I grew up in … and I’m walking into people’s homes.”
Weiss told her story March 26 to 270 5th through high school Garrison and White Shield students.
Her story started 10 years before her September 2016 arrest. Three surgeries within a short time came with pain pill prescriptions.
The UND graduate was admittedly tough but she took the pills, and then upped her dose and her addiction grew to the point of stealing pills from family, friends and eventually unsuspecting neighbors.
