MARTINS FERRY — An Ohio physician who resides in Wheeling on Thursday received a seven-year federal prison sentence for his role in unlawfully distributing opioids from his Martins Ferry clinic.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Thomas Romano, 74, of Wheeling owned and operated a self-named pain management clinic in Martins Ferry, 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, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Between October 2014 and September 2019, Romano prescribed more than 137,000 pills including opioids, benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxants, to nine individuals.

A federal jury convicted Romano in September 2023 of 24 counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.

The DEA, FBI, HHS-OIG, Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, and Ohio Board of Pharmacy investigated this case.