VA social worker suspended for buying narcotic from patient

October 11, 2013

On October 10, 2012, the North Carolina Social Work Certification and Licensure Board suspended the license of provisional social worker Timothy Wampler for a minimum of two years. According to the Board’s document, the Board received a complaint written by the Chief of Social Work of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Durham, NC (where Wampler was employed), alleging that Wampler purchased a controlled substance from a client and took the drug while on duty at the VA. In a statement to VA Chief of Police, Wampler admitted he’d given a patient $150 for the drug Suboxone. Wampler, at hearing, admitted that he’d been addicted to opiates, had ingested a Suboxone pill while at work which he’d bought from a patient and admitted that he was not currently capable of practicing social work.