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Monday, October 16th, 2017

The Drug Industry’s Triumph Over the DEA

Author:     Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein
Source:     The Washington Post
Publication Date:     Oct. 15, 2017
 Link: The Drug Industry’s Triumph Over the DEA
Stephan:   Over 20 million Americans aged 12 or older have "substance-use disorder." By 2015 it was killing 33,000 people a year, about the same as guns and traffic driving fatalities. Tobacco, alcohol, and prescribed opioids are now the country’s three main killers. A few months ago, I wrote about this at length in America’s Deadly Opioid Epidemic From Which Everyone But the Users Profits. As I did the research for that paper, which I encourage you to look at, I was appalled by the blatant corruption of the American government by the pharmaceutical industry. Now the Washington Post has climbed even further into the corruption. Read this report and you will see why I believe the United States because of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision has basically become a democratic republic in form, but in fact a sleazy kleptocracy.  

Illustration by Eddie Alvarez/The Washington Post;
Photos by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post, U.S. Senate, DEA, iStock

In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress effectively stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription narcotics onto the nation’s streets.

By then, the opioid war had claimed 200,000 lives, more than three times the number of U.S. military deaths in the Vietnam War. Overdose deaths continue to rise. There is no end in sight.

A handful of members of Congress, allied with the nation’s major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and “60 Minutes.” The DEA had opposed the effort for years.

The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying […]

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