Virginia doctor sentenced for overprescribing opioids linked to seven overdose deaths.
A Virginia doctor with a long history in medicine is going to prison after years of writing massive numbers of opioid prescriptions without proper care. David Allingham, who owned a clinic called Oakton Primary Care Center, was sentenced to 13 years behind bars. Federal prosecutors say that instead of helping people recover, he played a major part in worsening their addiction struggles. They say he handed out more than 400,000 pills like oxycodone and amphetamines across northern Virginia and Richmond—often for no valid medical reason.
Allingham, 65, didn’t just write a lot of prescriptions—he did so while ignoring serious red flags. Some of his patients had failed drug tests or were known to be using street drugs like fentanyl and heroin. Still, the Virginia doctor kept writing scripts. Prosecutors say he even went so far as to lie in medical records and use another doctor’s name to approve prescriptions. In one case, he helped a patient try to regain custody of his kids by faking drug screen results, even though he knew the man was addicted and dealing drugs. That same patient died of an overdose not long after Allingham gave him multiple prescriptions, including one for a drug meant to prevent relapse when used correctly—but not when taken alongside opioids.
The harm wasn’t just medical. Some of Allingham’s former patients lost everything. One woman said she had never struggled with addiction before seeing him, but after being prescribed high doses of painkillers, she became hooked. She lost her home and described her new life as unrecognizable. “I feel so ashamed that it has crippled me,” she told officials. Another former patient said she had a similar experience, falling into a spiral she couldn’t escape because of the prescriptions she received at his clinic.
Allingham’s actions caught the attention of both pharmacies and medical boards. CVS Health noticed that since 2020, the number of oxycodone prescriptions coming from him had jumped fivefold. Nearly half were high-dose prescriptions. When CVS stopped filling them, he told staff and patients to go to smaller, independent pharmacies instead. Then, during a federal raid in 2023, he told an employee to delete text messages and gave false information to agents. These actions added to the legal trouble he now faces.
The judge did not sentence the Virginia doctor to life in prison, though that was within the scope of what prosecutors were seeking. Instead, he was given 13 years after pleading guilty to several serious charges, including drug distribution and lying in a healthcare matter. His defense argued that he meant well but made poor decisions. They said he believed he was helping patients avoid street drugs by trusting them and writing prescriptions.
Between 2016 and 2023, at least seven of his patients died from overdoses shortly after receiving prescriptions from him. One man who had been seeing Allingham for four years died within weeks of receiving both anti-relapse medication and a new oxycodone prescription. His widow said in court that Allingham had abused the trust that comes with being a doctor, calling the outcome “devastating.”
The case highlights the deep reach of the opioid crisis in the U.S., where thousands of lives are lost each year to overdose. In 2022 alone, more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses, with most of those deaths linked to opioids. These numbers show that the crisis continues to affect people across all backgrounds and communities. For some, a trusted doctor’s choices made the difference between recovery and tragedy.
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Addiction doctor’s ‘sloppy’ practices led to 7 fatal overdoses in VA, feds say
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