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Another gross thing they did: A former DEA council in charge of regulating distributors then worked with them to pass a law by unanimous consent neutering this
by dillondoyle 5y ago
Another gross thing they did:
A former DEA council in charge of regulating distributors then worked with them to pass a law by unanimous consent neutering this single enforcement tool the DEA had.
The former DEA attorney "gave the industry intimate knowledge of the DEA’s strategy."
Below links have gross records that reveled among other things that a Rep. sponsoring the bill emailed the lobbyists asking for questions he can ask the DEA...
If you haven't watch Gibney's "Crime of the Century" on HBO it touches on this incident. The context is that the DEA used a stop order against McKesson, it was one of the only tools they had. McKesson did not like this. They pushed back HARD. I understand concerns that legit non-opiate meds were held up for a few days, but this was the only tool DEA had to send a message.
Of course.... “Purdue was very active in influencing the ultimate definition of an ‘imminent danger to the public health or safety.’ ”
Humans, hell even the most obvious 'AI', could flag ginormous amounts of pills going to tiny zip codes. They put profits over people's lives. They violated the law, minimally in spirit, I believe in conservative textual reading.
"the sponsors and co-sponsors have received $1.4 million in campaign contributions from the industry and the alliance, according to campaign finance records."
It's shocking how relatively tiny amounts of money open access to decision makers.
Gibney's doc also reveals this addiction pushing behavior is endemic: Purdue had a government regulator sit in a motel and draft their label - which gave them the excuse to market a potentially 'less addictive' drug and we all know what happened from there.
https://archive.is/bmCiD https://archive.is/bmCiD
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whistleblowers-dea-attorneys-went-easy-on-mckesson-the-countrys-largest-drug-distributor/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whistleblowers-dea-attorneys-we...
I have very strong feelings about what I consider crimes of big pharma & opiates. To me, our for-profit system is a root cause of human misery. Obviously complicated issue, but I think there has to be some type of semi competitive socialized healthcare.