MARTINSVILLE, Va. (WFXR) – On December 31, 2024, the US Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia announced a Martinsville-based doctor was convicted on multiple drug charges by a US District Court in Abingdon.
After a three-week trial, 42-year-old Joel Smithers was found guilty of one count of maintaining a place to illegally distribute controlled substances and 466 counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II controlled substances.
“Patients trust doctors to make decisions based on their healthcare needs, not a perversion of their own greed,” Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said today. “For many years, this defendant betrayed the trust placed in him by his patients, his community, and the medical profession as a whole through his illegal distribution of thousands of medically unnecessary opioids. I am grateful to the entire prosecution team for bringing this case to justice.”
According to the district attorney, in August of 2015, Smithers opened an office in Martinsville and “prescribed controlled substances to every patient in his practice,” distributing over 500,000 Schedule II drugs, including oxymorphone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, and fentanyl.
Evidence showed that Smithers did not accept insurance and took in over $700,000 in cash and credit card payments before warrants were served at his office in March 2017. Smithers was previously convicted on these charges in 2019; however, the US Supreme Court changed the law concerning jury instructions in cases involving the illegal distribution of controlled substances by health care providers after his conviction, resulting in a new trial.
“The existence of these ‘pill mills’ flooding southwest Virginia with controlled substances violates one of the first principles of the Hippocratic Oath: to do no harm,” said Attorney General Jason Miyares. “Joel Smithers did not seek to treat patients but rather sought to destroy lives for profit. I am grateful to both the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for their resilience and professionalism in this and many other instances. My special thanks goes out to Virginia’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for their exemplary work in keeping our citizens safe.”
Smithers faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of $1,000,000 for each distribution count and up to 20 years and $500,000 for maintaining a place for the illegal distribution of controlled substances.
Sentencing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on March 3, 2025, in Abingdon.