By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - A Virginia doctor who prescribed more than 500,000 opioid doses in less than two years had his conviction and 40-year .
talk to your doctor about chantix. to the index of other news tonight and to the doctor sentenced on more than 800 drug charges in abingdon, virginia. dr. joel smithers was sentenced to 40 years in prison for illegally prescribing more than a half a million opioid pills to patients, including fentanyl and oxycodone. federal prosecutors say he received $700,000 from patients for this. some traveling hundreds of miles for those prescriptions. there was a shooting at a pediatrician s office in east point, georgia. surveillance now showing a stray bullet fired into the waiting room from the outside. families running for cover. the bullet hitting the wall right next to the receptionist. police believe an argument outside erupted in gunfire. but no one was hurt inside. and tonight, we continue to follow the concerns over the eee virus. health officials reporting the country s 11th death from the mosquito-borne illness. a 79-year-old grandfather in michigan. the fourth death in that sta
it was in the british island territory of anguilla. investigators originally said that the man on the left ear, a banker from connecticut named gavin hapgood suffocated the hotel handyman kenny mitchell on the right here whose family described him as a hard worker happy father. prosecutors charged the american with manslaughter. he came he acted in self-defense after this hotel worker threatened him with a knife. the next scheduled hearing is next month, november 11. a doctor convicted of prescribing half a million illegal doses of opioids sentenced to 40 years in prison. joel smithers had been facing the possibility of life behind bars. prosecutors say some of his patients drove hundreds of miles to his office and that smithers, the doctor, pocketed $700,000 from the illegal prescriptions. in court he said he was a caring
italy today as we watch it from across the atlantic. back here in washington sandra: virginia doctor now facing life in prison. dr. joel smithers has convicted of more than 800 counts of illegally prescribing opioids. his sentence will be handed down tomorrow. joining us now is trial attorney lisa kuharski. what do we expect to happen here? i expect a stiff sentence. i think we re seeing this leading to stiffer penalties especially for doctors breaching their trust to the public, breaching their duties. because of the 860 counts, one of them being an overdose, which is a drug use resulting in death according to federal guidelines, that could give him a life sentence. bill: 860 counts. i m assuming it pertains to 860 patients? or do the counts apply to more than one patient at a time? that s the whole thing we re seeing with this kind of abuse.
prescribing 50 million substance controlled pills. 87 medical professionals have been charged with opioid related crimes, nearly double the number of the last two years. a virginia based doctor will soon find out whether he ll spend the rest of his life behind bars for helping fuel our nation s opioid epidemic. his name dr. joel smithers. prosecutors say he doled out half million doses of opioids in just two year. patients drove hundreds of miles just to get prescription. back in may he was convicted of hundreds accounts of illegally describing drugs including one in a situation where a woman died. during his trial, he tried to sell himself as a caring doctor who was deceived by some patients. he admitted he sometimes wrote and mailed prescriptions for patients he had never seen. he claimed he did speak to them over the phone. the doctor has said he plans to appeal. joining me now emily compagno.