MORGANTOWN — Some 60 medical professionals from five states, including a Monongalia County physician, were named in federal indictments Wednesday on charges of illegally prescribing pain pills. Federal prosecutors said the investigation was led by the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force, launched by the Trump administration in 2018. It marks the largest investigation of its kind in U.S. history.
The defendants allegedly wrote more than 350,000 illegal prescriptions for 32 million pills in exchange for a number of things including money and sex. Authorities began arresting doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Alabama once the indictments were unsealed in federal court in Cincinnati.
The U.S. Department of Justice began the investigation last October. It targeted the five states because they have been hard hit by the opioid crisis. Additional federal prosecutors will be assigned to the region including West Virginia’s southern and norther districts.
Attorneys for the Northern District of West Virginia revealed “a case was brought against an orthopedic surgeon who allegedly used fraudulent prescriptions to obtain tablets of acetaminophen-codeine for his own use.”
The indictment of Monongalia County doctor Chad Poage claims the surgeon used his DEA number to write prescriptions in the names of a relative, even though the pills were for his own use. Poage allegedly used a driver’s license that he had stolen from a colleague to obtain the pills from pharmacy.
Poage remained listed Wednesday as a doctor at Mountainstate Orthopedic Associates, Inc., on the business’s automated phone directory. He was not listed as a physician on the organization’s website. The Dominion Post left messages with Poage’s secretary and another doctor at Mountainstate Orthopedic, but was unable to verify his employment.
According to the indictment, Poage wrote a prescription for 50 pills of acetaminophen-codeine No. 3, a controlled substance, for someone with the initials R.K., on March 5, 2018. That same day, Poage presented a driver’s license belonging to a J.W. at the pharmacy when picking up the prescription.
“At the time he prepared the fraudulent prescription the defendant knew the prescription was false, and further intended to obtain the acetaminophen-codeine No. 3 for his own consumption even though there was no valid medical purpose for such use or consumption by defendant,” the indictment states.
In December 2018, Poage agreed to a consent order with the West Virginia Board of Osteopathic Medicine after the board received information March 13 regarding two incidents involving Poage misusing prescription controlled substances. The two incidents happened on March 7 and 12, according to the consent order.
Poage’s controlled substance license expired March 13, according to the board’s licensee verification system. His license to practice medicine is active until June 30.
Poage also admitted to suffering from a substance use disorder, the consent order states. He self-enrolled in a treatment program March 14.
Diana Shepard, executive director of the West Virginia Board of Osteopathic Medicine, confirmed the consent order, which mandates treatment in the state’s health program for medical professionals. She said Poage’s treatment is the board’s primary concern. Poage is being monitored daily and the board will not take further action until the matter is settled, Shepard said, noting that an indictment is not proof of guilt.
“We knew nothing of any legal issues going on with Dr. Poage,” Shepard said, emphasizing she was not contacted by law enforcement before the indictment.
Also charged is Dr. Marc J. Spelar, a Huntington psychiatrist. He was indicted on 10 counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances involving more than 800 prescriptions and 17,000 opioid pills.
Spelar allegedly sold narcotics including dextroamphetamine, methylphenidate, and amphetamine salt, to a patient he never examined.
“Today’s is an important day for West Virginia and the nation,” Southern District U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart said in a news release. “The single largest prescription opioid law enforcement operation focused solely on Appalachia and the poison peddlers that have wreaked havoc, chaos and despair on our citizens and communities. Today’s effort is only the first of many more significant enforcement efforts to ensure the safety of our citizens. Drug dealers in lab coats are still drug dealers.
“My office and our dedicated law enforcement partners in the Southern District of West Virginia have been actively engaged in identifying and holding drug dealers accountable and making sure that abusive medical professionals that put profits before patients never write another prescription or treat another patient ever again.”
Northern District U.S. Attorney Bill Powell joined other federal prosecutors at Wednesday’s news conference in Cincinnati.
— MetroNews news director Jeff Jenkins contributed to this report.
