LAKE FOREST : 4-Year Prison Term for Ex-Pharmacist

A former Lake Forest pharmacist was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for illegally possessing prescription drugs for sale--his third such conviction in 11 years.

Stephen Bruce Marcum, 38, was stripped of his pharmacy license last year, placed on electronic surveillance for six months and sentenced to five years’ probation after he was found to be illegally possessing prescription drugs, court records show.

A subsequent search of his home turned up dozens of prescription drugs he had apparently stockpiled, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Ferguson said.

The prosecutor called Marcum a “sophisticated drug dealer, scammer and con-man.”

But Marcum told an Orange County deputy probation officer in his current case that he was not selling drugs to addicts, but was assisting sick people with prescriptions who needed an emergency refill after their supplies had run out.

Marcum said he was trying to put people out of their pain and make them more comfortable.

In a statement to Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan, Marcum asked that “justice be tempered with mercy.”

Marcum’s attorney could not be reached for comment late Friday.

In 1983, Marcum was convicted of transporting and selling controlled substances. He was sentenced to a work furlough program, court records show.

According to the sentencing report, Marcum has not been a problem prisoner, but has been placed in protective custody in the Orange County Men’s Jail because of his snoring.