Report: Trumps Pick for Drug Czar Helped Hinder Opioid Crackdown
https://www.thedailybeast.com/report-trumps-pick-for-drug-czar-helped-hinder-opioid-crackdown
1. ALARMING
6 hours ago
Report: Trumps Pick for Drug Czar Helped Hinder Opioid Crackdown
Bryan Woolston/Reuters
President Trumps nominee to be the countrys next drug czar, Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA), has been singled out as the architect behind legislation that crippled the Drug Enforcement Administrations fight against the opioid epidemic, in a new joint investigation by The Washington Post and 60 Minutes. Marino was the chief advocate of a bill introduced in 2013 and passed in 2016at the height of the drug epidemicthat stripped the DEA of its authority to freeze shipments of suspicious narcotics from drug companies, The Washington Post reported. Joe Rannazzisi, the former chief of the DEAs Office of Diversion Control, alleges in the report that several members of Congress are under the control of major drug companies that use their money to gain influence. The drug industrythe manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and chain drugstoreshave an influence over Congress that has never been seen before, Rannazzisi was quoted as saying. According to the Post, political action committees representing the pharmaceutical industry contributed at least $1.5 million to the 23 members of Congress who sponsored or co-sponsored the industry-friendly legislation. Marino reportedly received $100,000 from these committees, while Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) is said to have gotten $177,000.