U.S. - Doctor gets 40 years in prison for prescribing over 500,000 opioid doses

S.J.B.

S.J.B.

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Doctor gets 40 years in prison for prescribing over 500,000 opioid doses
The Guardian
October 3rd, 2019
A doctor who prosecutors said ran a medical practice in Virginia like an interstate drug distribution ring was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids.

Dr Joel Smithers was sentenced in US district court in Abingdon. Judge James Jones sentenced Smithers to 40 years. He faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum of life.

Smithers was convicted in May of more than 800 counts of illegally distributing opioids, including oxycodone and oxymorphone that caused the death of a West Virginia woman.

Authorities say Smithers prescribed more than 500,000 doses of opioids to patients from Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee while based in the small western Virginia town of Martinsville from 2015 to 2017. Martinsville has a population of roughly 13,000.

US attorney Thomas Cullen said the sentence, while severe, “serves as just punishment” for Smithers’ actions.
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Read the full story here.
 
saw this the other day. Just another instance that will make the DEA go ape shit on the physicians prescribing these for legit reasons.

and 40 years?! I didn't hear the most recent news about it regarding his sentencing. That's BS.. 40 years is really nothing for this crime.
 
Lizzy1Fair said:
saw this the other day. Just another instance that will make the DEA go ape shit on the physicians prescribing these for legit reasons.

and 40 years?! I didn't hear the most recent news about it regarding his sentencing. That's BS.. 40 years is really nothing for this crime.
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40 years is nothing? It's quadruple the average for a rape conviction. It's basically the rest of his life. I would say dude got screwed
 
cj said:
40 years is nothing? It's quadruple the average for a rape conviction. It's basically the rest of his life. I would say dude got screwed
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Dude definitely got screwed unfairly.thats just so unfair.
A murderous thug dealing kilos of fentanyl wouldn't get that long.i live in a country where sane sentences get doled out for crimes.40yrs is too long
 
so he treated pain and prevented addicts from using the fentanyl for a few years, which they are all currently dead from since they lost their script from this doctor. I don't really see that he did anything wrong. Unless he told them they weren't addictive or wouldn't kill you if you took too high of a dose (both things stated on the bottle), i don't see any wrongdoing.
 
He didn't do anything wrong, wish more doctors wrote scripts freely. Hold on better yet i wish all drugs we're legal and i could get my daily ball of Opium to gobble up. The fact they would put someone in prison for 40 years for a crime related to drugs is absurd to me. This guy really got fucked over.
 
Hope he wins an appeal against this horrific sentence.unless the guy did something bad he doesn't deserve that.
 
^ stuck in there. another sacrificial lamb to scapegoat for the real criminals that all belong on deathrow, the politicians that took the bribes and allowed all of this prescribing to go out of control because they were happy with thtier pharma bribes...now they are blaming doctors?
 
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b^ the above isn't meant to imply dr. prescribing out of countrol is to blame for the heroin epidemic. pill mills are a real problem. But the first generation to have a lower standard quality of life than their parents comes with some bagge and despair - enter opioids whether it was cartel heroin or oxy 80s. it was going to happen regardless in these very different times decades ago when the youth had opportunity, herion was there, barbiturates, pills, opioids and narcotics of all kind completely un-watched and scheduled in many cases - were available from the doctor. Peaple had jobs and houses and stuff to do beside dope, they had no drug epidemics. I know many people that really gave it their all and barely scrape by, this outcome leads to addiction. as the wealth gap widens and automation take more jobs there will be more demand for heroin and all other drugs.
 
^ say what? There have been a number of "drug epidemics" in the past...like PCP/ludes in the 70s, cocaine/crack from the 80s to the early 90s, then meth in the mid 90s-early 2000s, then opiates...in the future it'll be something else, otherwise they'll trot out an old classic like meth or something, for a comeback tour
 

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Guy didn't accept insurance (only cash & check), didn't have the bare necessities for medical evaluation, didn't have nurses, didn't tie in legitimate medical conditions including opioid addiction, sent stuff to patients he didn't even see (for money as above), incredibly high amounts, and had other factors against him. He went against the terms of his medical license and showed clear understanding in his attempts to avoid prosecution efforts.

"[W]hile executing a search warrant, DEA agents found over $20,000 in the glove compartment of Smithers’ vehicle. They also found hydromorphone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, methadone, and morphine pills, along with over-the-counter and
supplement pills, mixed together in large bottles in Smithers’ backpack. Lastly, they found small plastic baggies containing 10 oxymorphone pills each. A DEAagent testified that based on his training and experience, the quantities of oxymorphone pills separated into the baggies were indicative of distribution amounts, and they were packaged such that they could be easily distributed.

There was no evidence that Smithers intended to distribute the controlled substances found in his vehicle to any particular patients."

There are legitimate pain doctors showing compassion to untreated pain patients, who have come under scrutiny. This guy from these findings (as biased as they may be in many regards), doesn't seem to fit that mold all too well. Just of modicum of effort to document care and evaluate people would have made a difference. He is messing it up for pain management and people who may need that kind of therapy.

40 years definitely does seem excessive and is likely more a deterrent sentence in the current climate. The connection to his license and his actions in this current climate are notable.
 
'medicine cabinet' said:
Sucks. I'm sure plenty of those people were straight junkie fakers, but all the ones who actually need strong meds get the shaft bc of them.
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A lot of those junky fakers as you call them are actually proper pain patients but their tolerance is so out of control they have no choice but to lie and cheat I am one of those ones.

This is gonna suck for you yanks who live nearby as doctors are gonna be scared to write opiate scripts peek
 
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