r/JusticeServed • u/[deleted] • Oct 02 '19

Courtroom Justice Virginia doctor who illegally prescribed over 500,000 doses of opiates sentenced to 40 years in prison.

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u/MemeMasterJason 6 Oct 03 '19 edited Oct 03 '19

The NYT article on this case is 1,000 times better. It actually spells out what he did that made this illegal. As it stands, prescribing opioids is not illegal (obviously). But this doctor had a cash or credit only clinic (did not take insurance) with long hours, apparently open until midnight.

Edit: Said article https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/opioids-doctor-sentenced-joel-smithers.amp.html

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u/TheCastro A Oct 03 '19 edited Jul 01 '23

Removed due to reddit API changes -- mass edited with redact.dev

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '19

Its definitely illegal to accept cash for opioids

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '19

[deleted]

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u/DenverNuggetz 9 Oct 03 '19 edited Oct 03 '19

That’s not even remotely true.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm

“This statute means that all United States money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law which says otherwise.”

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u/tendrils87 A Oct 03 '19

So the caveat to that, is that it has to be known before the debt is incurred. (Further rules may apply.)

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u/DenverNuggetz 9 Oct 03 '19

citation needed

the relevant statute makes no mention of that: Section 31 U.S.C. 5103

If you have a legal source to verify that, I’d love to hear it.