An Ohio physician was sentenced to seven years in prison for unlawfully distributing opioids from his clinic. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Thomas Romano, 74, of Wheeling, West Virginia, owned and operated a self-named pain management clinic in Martin’s Ferry, Ohio, to which individuals traveled hundreds of miles to obtain prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances. The prescriptions Romano issued for opioids and other controlled substances greatly exceeded recommended dosages and were in dangerous, life-threatening combinations that fueled the addiction of the individuals to whom he prescribed. Between October 2014 and September 2019, Romano prescribed over 137,000 pills, including opioids, benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxants, to nine individuals.
