Doctor Sentenced to 40 Years for Illegally Prescribing Opioids

A doctor from Martinsville, Virginia, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids to his patients.

In a U.S. District Court on Wednesday, Judge James Jones sentenced 36-year-old Joel Smithers to prison after he was convicted on more than 800 counts of illegally distributing opioids, including oxycodone and oxymorphone that ultimately caused the death of a woman from West Virginia.

“Authorities say Smithers prescribed more than 500,000 doses of opioids to patients from Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, and Tennessee while based in Martinsville, Virginia, from 2015 to 2017,” according to NBC 4 Washington.

Court documents stated that Smithers was also assessed an $86,000 fine and is required to serve three years of supervised release once his prison sentence is completed.

“This physician perpetuated, on a massive scale, the vicious cycle of addiction and despair,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen in a statement.

Reports said that prior to his conviction and sentencing, investigators concluded that the doctor was perpetuating the opioid crisis by giving more than 500,000 Schedule II Controlled Substances to his patients.

“Because people do trust their doctors, and they trust if their doctors gave them a prescription that it’s OK for them to take it,” said director of prevention at Piedmont Community Services, Bonnie Favero.

However, the husband and father of five children said he was a caring doctor who was deceived by his patients.

During the trial, one man testified that he would drive eight to 10 hours each way from his home in Kentucky to Smither’s practice because his doctor refused to prescribe him the pills.

When asked why he would make the long drive to Virginia, he said, “There wasn’t — there wasn’t no doctors in my area like that to see.”

Reports said that Judge Jones recommended Smithers serve his sentence in a prison near his family and that he receive some sort of mental health treatment during his incarceration.