Doctor sentenced to 40 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids
A 36-year-old doctor was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Wednesday after he took in roughly $700,000 by illegally prescribing opioids and contributing to an epidemic of abuse that reached far beyond his practice in the small town of Martinsville, Virginia.
Dr. Joel Smithers, a married father of five who lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, was convicted in May of more than 800 counts of illegally prescribing drugs, including the oxycodone and oxymorphone that caused the death of a West Virginia woman.
The sentencing took place at the U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Virginia. The sentence was more than the mandatory minimum of 20 years, but less than the maximum of life in prison.
Patients from five states drove hundreds of miles to see him, spending up to 16 hours on the road to get prescriptions for oxycodone and other powerful painkillers.
Authorities say that, instead of running a legitimate medical practice, Smithers headed an interstate drug distribution ring that contributed to the opioid abuse epidemic in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.