Recent Dr. Joel Smithers Commentaries

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500,000
That’s how many doses of oxycodone, hydromorphone, fentanyl and other opioids Virginia Dr. Joel Smithers illegally dispensed to patients over a two year period. In a press release from the Department of Justice in the Western State of Virginia (May 9), “…Smithers, a Martinsville-based doctor, was found guilty today of 861 federal drug charges at the conclusion of a nine-day...
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October 4, 2019
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The Latest... And Often Greatest
Peace Is Not an Elective
I had just learned of the passing of a good friend and colleague, Colman McCarthy when the memories began to return. Before I ever met...
Revelations
In 1927, Sinclair Lewis gave America a character it did not want to recognize in the mirror: Elmer Gantry. Gantry is loud, magnetic, insatiable —...
The Story of Chips, and The Cost of Looking Away
It’s just a photograph: a wartime dog sitting alert, ears up, wearing a military harness. But the story about a World War II sentry dog...
It’s Time to Talk About Respect
A cancer has been growing in our national life, so embedded in our culture that we’ve stopped acknowledging it. In the 1940s and the decades...
Adversity and Perseverance
“How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.”— Yvon Chouinard “Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem”—Eric Hoffer “Retreat, Hell!...
Who Decides What’s Seen?
There are moments when a single arrest tells us more about the state of the country than a thousand speeches. The recent detention of Don...