NOW WHAT? –
Feb. 2, 2024 – A Virginia doctor who prescribed more than 500,000 opioid doses in less than two years had his conviction and 40-year prison sentence thrown out by a federal appeals court on Friday.
Prosecutors said Smithers prescribed controlled substances including fentanyl, hydromorphone, oxycodone and oxymorphone to every patient he saw at the Martinsville, Virginia office he opened in August 2015.
A majority of patients traveled hundreds of miles each way to see Smithers, who did not accept insurance and collected more than $700,000 in cash and credit card payments before law enforcement raided his office in March 2017, prosecutors said.
