Former Martinsville Physician Convicted on 466 Counts in Federal Opioid Case
- BTW21
- 21 hours ago
- 2 min read
Abingdon, Va. (BTW21) — A Martinsville-based physician convicted of illegally prescribing hundreds of thousands of opioid pills was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Dr. Joel Smithers, 42, of Texarkana, Texas, was found guilty in December 2024 following a three-week jury trial in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.
He was convicted of one count of maintaining a place for the purpose of distributing controlled substances and 466 counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II drugs.
Prosecutors said Smithers operated his Martinsville clinic between 2015 and 2017 as a “pill mill,” writing prescriptions for powerful opioids, including oxymorphone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, and fentanyl, to virtually every patient who visited.
Many of his patients traveled hundreds of miles to obtain prescriptions, while Smithers collected more than $700,000 in cash and credit card payments, officials said.
Christopher C. Goumenis, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Washington Division, noted that Smithers’ registration to prescribe controlled substances was revoked in 2019.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares condemned Smithers’ conduct, saying the doctor “operated like a drug dealer with a prescription pad, flooding communities with addictive and deadly opioids, all while pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Smithers had previously been convicted in 2019, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding jury instructions in cases involving health care providers led to a retrial.
At sentencing, the court found Smithers perjured himself, ran an extensive criminal operation, and abused his position of trust as a physician.
The case was investigated by the DEA’s Tactical Diversion Squads in Roanoke and Bristol, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and multiple local law enforcement agencies across Virginia.
Prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Randy Ramseyer and Corey Hall, along with Special Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Suzanne Kerney-Quillen, Senior Assistant Attorney General with Virginia’s Major Crimes and Emerging Threats Section.