Conviction Tossed for Doctor who prescribed more than 500,000 opioid doses

Prosecutors had accused Smithers of prescribing controlled substances, including fentanyl, hydromorphone, oxycodone, and oxymorphone, to every patient at his Martinsville, Virginia office since its opening in August 2015[2]. Many patients reportedly traveled significant distances to see Smithers, who did not accept insurance and allegedly collected over $700,000 in cash and credit card payments before his office was raided by law enforcement in March 2017[2]. In May 2019, jurors convicted Smithers on 861 counts, following instructions that the government needed to prove he acted “without a legitimate medical purpose or beyond the bounds of medical practice”[2]. However, the appeals court deemed this instruction defective in light of a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified the necessity of proving a defendant “knowingly or intentionally” acted in an unauthorized manner when prescribing controlled substances[2]. <a href="https://medium.com/@SterlingHospedales/conviction-tossed-for-doctor-who-prescribed-more-than-500-000-opioid-doses-e1fb99e578c0">Visit Now</a>