Ralph Thomas Reach, MD, 58, is a board certified physician in family, addiction, and emergency medicine. He is the owner of eight addiction treatment centers in Virginia and Tennessee. His home and clinics were raided May 2, 2018. As he was driving to Virginia his wife called to tell him the feds were raiding their home. The feds downloaded all personal and business computers and phones, including those of his wife, daughter and employees.  The search warrant allowed agents to search for pretty much anything they wanted, stating anything related to Medicaid or Medicare, banking records and medical records and anything related to the distribution of drugs or misbranding of drugs—even though the treatment centers have never taken Medicare or Medicaid. He also said there are no medications at the recovery centers and doctors do not administer medications.  But this is standard government MO—take everything out of the office, then create the crime.

“This wasn’t necessary,” said Dr. Reach. “There were no charges and no one was arrested. We have done absolutely nothing illegal, immoral or unethical.” “We have set ourselves up as a national standard of care on how to do Suboxone right.” But what Dr. Reach might not understand is that they seldom have justification for charges or arrest at the time of the raid on ANY doctor. They use the proceeds of the raid to create charges for fabricated crimes. Dr. Reach called the action “overzealous” that could likely cause drug overdose deaths in the region, as patients were turned away when they showed up for their appointments.

Dr. Reach said that, with his background in addiction recovery and work in helping set standards in the field, he was shocked. Dr. Reach is the past president of the Tennessee Society of Addiction Medicine. He is on the legislative committee of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. His office has been the model for other clinics to visit and model after. He helped write the legislation for the state of Tennessee for the OBOT (Office Based Opioid Treatment) rules and regulations and was on the governor’s advisory committee in Virginia.

In the throes of the attack, Dr. Reach spoke of his concern for the 4,500 patients and their families that are going to have trouble getting care which could cause them to resort to street drugs possibly causing overdose deaths, and for the 100 people he employs. Watauga Recovery Centers are located in Johnson City, Morristown, Knoxville, Newport, Greeneville, and Cookeville in Tennessee; Duffield, Wytheville and Abingdon in Virginia; and Fletcher in North Carolina. The map below shows the extent of the area of possible death, increased addiction, and destruction of family and community that the loss of Dr. Reach’s clinics will cover.  Approximately 40,000 square miles is affected—the size of the individual states of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or Ohio.

“(The agents) have done everything they can do to hinder us from taking care of addicts that need treatment, and that is not the national model for health care when it comes to treating the disease of opiate dependency.” The primary method of treatment at the clinics is Suboxone, the drug now being pushed by the federal government. So is the plan, then, to turn tables on those physicians that bite the carrot to incarcerate them and confiscate their assets?

With the attack on Dr. Reach and an earlier attack on Dr. Gitlow in Rhode Island, a law firm in Washington, DC, DCBA Law & Policy, has made some remarkable advances in communicating with President Trump on their behalf, stating that federal actions are going too far, executing search warrants on “medication assisted treatment (MAT) providers with no obvious rationale”.

Michael Barnes, managing partner at DCBA Law & Policy, states that these raids were unwarranted. In a letter to the president, DCBA Law & Policy calls for the dismissal of Sessions, the suspension of DOJ criminal investigations against physicians prescribing MAT, and the development of a process to ensure criminal investigations are conducted only with referrals from state licensing boards.

“These are not criminal cases,” Barnes says. “These are cases where the Department of Justice is going after some of America’s best addiction physicians.”

Ordinarily, questionable medical conduct, such as suspected diversion or overprescribing, might be a case for state medical boards to examine. Physicians violating accepted standards would be investigated by a board of professionals to distinguish whether the offense warrants suspension of the license to practice or action from law enforcement.

“When there is any medical question about a prescriber’s conduct, that question should be referred to the state professional licensing board, which can then conduct an investigation and refer criminal conduct to law enforcement,” Barnes says. “That’s what should be happening. Period.”

The Federation of State Medical Boards prepared a brief in 2009 that had the support of attorneys general, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and others in law enforcement. While it was framed specifically to position best practices in investigating potential diversion of pain medications, the approach certainly applies to the medications used to treat addiction disorders. And vice versa. This support of addiction physicians should also be applied to all of the innocent pain management physicians that have been illegally criminalized by these same methods.

I find it interesting that 1 week after the raid, a USA Today reporter published an article titled “Raided Addiction Recovery Center Has History of Donating to State Lawmakers” in which he reports that Dr. Reach personally contributed $14,500 to the campaigns of 9 legislators and his business, Watauga Recovery Centers donated $8000+ to the same individuals over 4 years’ time. Matthew and Timothy Hill, two of the most supported legislators, have visited his clinic, as also has Micah Van Huss and Phil Roe. The Hills even said after the raid,

“They have a reputation for successfully treating patients with addiction issues in our community and have often been recognized for their standard of care.”

Basically all that these contributions show is that Dr. Reach does what every American should do—support the politicians running for office that he backs. If every citizen contributed to the political campaigns of those they support, then politicians would not have to bend over to the lobbying interests of a few large-sized corporations and special interest groups, like Andrew Kolodny. I wonder if Kolodny has an interest in creating centers in the areas where Dr. Reach practiced. Hummmm.  I wonder…. Anyway, the amount of money here contributed by Dr. Reach is small change, and I’m sure did not sway votes on critical issues before the legislature.

Dr. Reach and all of the practitioners employed by Watauga Recover Centers needs to contact us at Doctors of Courage and use our expertise to end these attacks on them, as well as all other innocent practitioners.

Addendum:

Dr. Reach pleaded guilty of 3 misdemeanors in March, 2023. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison. But because of his plea, Tennessee BOM automatically revoked his license to practice. Standard BOM procedure. And every other state he holds a license in will do the same thing.

To end these attacks, restore pain management, and provide compensation to all the families that have been destroyed by government overreach, we must get the Controlled Substance Act repealed.  Join Doctorsofcourage to get that done. Learn what we teach and spread the word.  NO DRUG CAUSES ADDICTION!! Let’s end the War on Drugs, Doctors and Pain Patients, end the black market, solve the southern border crisis, and restore proper pain management.  It CAN be done! 

Addendum:

I have failed in my mission to end these attacks on doctors and pain patients. Through John Bevere’s book The Bait of Satan, I have figured out why—my lack of forgiveness to those who attacked me. As in Mark 11: 24-26:

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespassed. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

And when you do not do the will of the Father, you are estranged from him and he will ignore you.  So we all must forgive the agents who attacked us in order for things to be made right through any of our works.

Jesus said

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

But we cannot lay down our lives for God unless we know Him well enough to trust Him. We must have the assurance that He would never do anything to harm us. He always looks out for what He knows is in our best interest. As a nation, those of us suffering from these attacks must understand that we are serving as God’s messengers of love.  We must forgive those who persecute us and love them instead, following God’s will for us. Then and only then will we see fruits from our labor.

So I hope that everyone who has suffered from what happened to Dr. Reach can trust the Lord, forgive those who have hurt you, and help bring this country back to the God-fearing country that our forefathers founded. Then, and only then, can you be a part of the effort to stop these attacks. I look forward to that day.