Congress big pharma and the DEA

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Congress big pharma and the DEA

Postby KEND on Mon Oct 16, 2017 9:29 am

I was always aware that lobbyists have a lot of congressmen in their pockets. We are shocked when people are killed in incidents involving gunmen, hurricanes , fires but the magnitude of the opioid scourge defies imagination. So what do we do about politicians who are bought and paid for, apparently very little. The present administration wants to limit the power of the press, this would reduce us to the status of a banana republic

DEA responds to explosive "60 Minutes" report about opioid crisis
Lawmakers and the Drug Enforcement Administration are facing tough questions following an explosive joint investigation by "60 Minutes" and The Washington Post that says Congress helped disarm the DEA.
Drug overdose deaths in the United States have more than doubled over the past decade. The CDC says 188,000 people have died from opioid overdoses from 1999 to 2015.
Joe Rannazzisi used to run the DEA diversion control. He told "60 Minutes" correspondent Bill Whitaker that the opioid crisis was aided in part by Congress, lobbyists and the drug distribution industry.
The DEA says it has taken actions against far fewer opioid distributors under a new law. A Justice Department memo shows 65 doctors, pharmacies and drug companies received suspension orders in 2011. Only six of them have gotten them this year.
The DEA has issued no suspension orders against a distributor for nearly two years. It says in a statement it will continue to "use all the tools at our disposal to combat this epidemic."
"During the past seven years, we have removed approximately 900 registrations annually, preventing reckless doctors and rogue businesses from making an already troubling problem worse," the DEA said in a written statement. "Increasingly, our investigators initiated more than 10,000 cases and averaged more than 2,000 arrests per year."
CBS News correspondent Paula Reid reports the Justice Department, which overseas the DEA, does not dispute any of the "60 Minutes" reporting. It says the drug crisis is a top priority for the Trump administration.
"One of the president's and the attorney general's highest priorities is ending the devastating and unacceptable drug crisis in America that saw 64,000 deaths in 2016, many of them caused by opioids," Ian D. Prior, principal deputy director of public affairs at the Justice Department, said in a written statement. "From street dealers to corrupt doctors to the distributors that allow diversion of deadly pills, this administration is absolutely committed to reversing this disturbing and heartbreaking trend and will use every tool available to do so."
But as the "60 Minutes" report detailed, the DEA's efforts may have been undermined by the so-called "revolving door" culture in Washington.
At least 46 investigators, attorneys and supervisors from the DEA, including 32 directly from the division that regulates the drug industry, have been hired by the pharmaceutical industry since the scrutiny on distributors began.
Among them, Linden Barber, former associate chief council at the DEA. He's now a senior vice president at Cardinal Health, one of the nation's top drug distributors.
Mike Gill, chief of staff for the former acting DEA administrator, was hired by one of the country's largest healthcare law firms.
And most recently, Jason Hadges, a senior DEA attorney overseeing enforcement, joined the pharmaceutical division of a high-powered D.C. law firm.
CBS News reached out to former acting DEA administrator Chuck Rosenberg, who oversaw the agency from May 2015 until earlier this month when he stepped down. He said he has not seen the "60 Minutes" story and does not intend to do so
KEND
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Re: Congress big pharma and the DEA

Postby KEND on Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:20 am

Follow up
A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has cast a grim new light on America’s opioid crisis. The organization found that hospitals in the United States attend more than 100 children and teenagers a day who are already hooked on opioids, reported DailyMail.co.uk.
The researchers based this estimate on their retrospective analysis of 2008 to 2013 data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. By combing through the database, they discovered that the number of under-21 patients admitted into the emergency room and diagnosed with opioid dependency or addiction rose drastically during the five-year period.
From 32,235 patients in 2008, the figure rocketed to 49,626 in 2013. This means that the average of 85 children and teenagers a day in 2008 jumped to 135 a day five years later. Of those who entered the emergency room, 88.3 percent were aged 18 to 21, and 8.4 percent were aged 16 to 17. Moreover, 200 children and teenagers died in the emergency room, while 325 died during the course of hospitalization.
However, the researchers behind the report acknowledged that the numbers could actually be higher in reality since it’s highly unlikely that every addicted child was screened by doctors.
Dr. Veerajalandhar Allareddy, study co-author and medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, said that he and his team were “taken aback by the magnitude” of the problem, then added that their research is only “skimming the surface.”
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Re: Congress big pharma and the DEA

Postby JoeWood on Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:59 am

If only all of those patients had just said no to drugs. ::) Clearly the war on drugs method isn't working, may be time for a new approach?
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Re: Congress big pharma and the DEA

Postby wiesiek on Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:37 am

education and de-criminalization is the only way.
This doesn`t prevent youngsters experimentation, in fact nothing will do,
but lowering the damage instead makin`it worst should be the direction.
Now
we have bigger problems than opioids - pain killer synthetics for elephants...
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Re: Congress big pharma and the DEA

Postby Steve James on Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:55 am

If they all switched to alcohol, it wouldn't help.
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Re: Congress big pharma and the DEA

Postby KEND on Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:34 pm

Watched program on the opioid epidemic this evening, I can see why trump wants to shut down the media. In August trump called for a national emergency on opioids, he called new Hampshire a 'den of drugs' , the only action since then was to appoint a drug czar who was one of the leaders of the bought congressmen who promoted a bill written by big pharma that tied the DEA's hands causing hundreds of additional deaths. DUH
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