Education
University of California, Berkeley.
University of California, Berkeley.
Current appointments include Chair of Adolescent Addiction Medicine at the Newport Academy in Southern California and Medical Director for Center Point drug rehabilitation centers. Smith is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Additionally, he is co-author of the textbook "Clinician's Guide to Substance Abuse" () and co-author with Dr. Daniel Amen of the book "Unchain Your Brain" (), which provides practical tools for addiction patients and addiction professionals.
On June 7, 1967, Smith, with the help of Darryl S.Inaba, PharmD, and a host of volunteer medical staff, founded and opened the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic in San Francisco, CA on Haight Street as a response to the medical needs of thousands of young people who descended upon San Francisco for the Summer of Love. The Clinic still operates today in San Francisco and continues to serve those without adequate health insurance. Smith served as Medical Director of the clinic for 39 years, since its inception.
He resigned from the clinic in February 2006 amid legal, medical, and business disputes with the Clinics' administration. The Clinic was initially funded through proceeds of benefit concerts, many of which were organized by Bill Graham (promoter). The first of such benefit concerts took place on July 13, 1967 at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, CA. Another, titled "Dr. Sunday's Medicine Show", took place on October 8, 1967 in San Jose, CA. These benefit concerts, organized by Smith and Bill Graham in the early years of the Clinic, included bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ravi Shankar, George Harrison, The Charlatans, Blue Cheer, and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
The concerts proved crucial in providing the funding necessary to keep the Clinic doors open during its early years, as traditional sources of funding were not immediately forthcoming. Through the benefit concerts organized with Bill Graham in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dr. Inaba and Dr. George "Skip" Gay created with the support of Dr. Dave. In the spring of 1973, Bill Graham staged two consecutive Saturday concerts at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, CA featuring The Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin.
Bill Graham asked the Clinic to staff a "medical emergency care tent" during both concerts. These small stadium concerts, about 18,000 at the Dead and 25,000 at Led Zeppelin, evolved into Bill Graham's Days on the Green concert series. The "medical emergency care tent" became , which is a branch of the Clinic that still exists today and provides medical care at hundreds of Northern California music concerts and events each year.