CINCINNATI, Ohio — Sixty medical professionals from five states, including West Virginia, were named in previously sealed federal indictments Wednesday on charges of illegally prescribing pain pills. Federal prosecutors said the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Surge (ARPO Surge) was the largest investigation of its kind in U.S. history.
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 Cincinnati.
Those charged allegedly wrote more than 350,000 illegal prescriptions for 32 million pills in exchange for a number of things including money and sex.
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 assigned to the region including West Virginia’s southern and norther districts.
Both Southern District U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart and Northern District U.S. Attorney Bill Powell joined other federal prosecutors and Wednesday’s news conference in Cincinnati.
Stuart said Dr. Marc J. Spelar, a Huntington psychiatrist, is among those charged. He’s been indicted on 10 counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances involving more than 800 prescriptions and over 17,000 opioid pills.
It’s alleged Spelar sold Schedule II narcotics including dextroamphetamine, methylphenidate, and amphetamine salt, to a patient he never examined.
“This won’t be the only takedown. There will be many takedowns in the future,” Stuart told MetroNews. “There are many investigations ongoing, unfortunately, but I’m very pleased with the effort with the effort we put together.”
Among the documents and resources from the press conference is an indictment of Monongalia County doctor Chad Poage. He is listed as a doctor at Mountainstate Orthopedic Associates, Inc., on the business’s automated phone directory. He is 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 has not been able to verify his employment.
Mountainstate Orthopedic is next to Mon Health Medical Center, but is not affiliated with Mon Health.
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 the prescription up.
“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, 2019.
Poage also admitted to suffering from a substance use disorder, the consent order states. He self-enrolled in a treatment program March 14.
Executive Director of the West Virginia Board of Osteopathic Medicine Diana Shepard confirmed the consent order, which mandates treatment in the West Virginia Medical Professionals Health Program, and said his treatment is the board’s primary concern.
Poage is being monitored daily by the professional health program and the board will not take any further action against Poage until after the matter is settled — an indictment is not proof of guilt, she said.
Shepard said she was not contacted and no requests for information were made by law enforcement prior to his indictment.
“We knew nothing of any legal issues going on with Dr. Poage,” she said.
The Dominion Post’s Will Dean contributed to this story.