After yearslong delay, DEA revokes license of wholesale drug distributor over opioid crisis failures

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and JIM MUSTIAN 25 minutes ago

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stripped one of the nation’s largest drug distributors of its license to sell highly addictive painkillers Friday after determining it failed to flag thousands of suspicious orders at the height of the opioid crisis.

The action against Morris & Dickson Co. that threatens to put it out of business came two days after an Associated Press investigation found the DEA allowed the company to keep shipping drugs for nearly four years after a judge recommended the harshest penalty for its “cavalier disregard” of rules aimed at preventing opioid abuse.

The DEA acknowledged that the time it took to issue its final decision was “longer than typical for the agency” but blamed Morris & Dickson in part for holding up the process by seeking delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its lengthy pursuit of a settlement that the agency said it had considered. The order becomes effective in 90 days, allowing more time to negotiate a settlement.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in the 68-page order that Morris & Dickson failed to accept full responsibility for its past actions, which included shipping 12,000 unusually large orders of opioids to pharmacies and hospitals between 2014 and 2018. During this time, the company filed just three suspicious order reports with the DEA.




Read more: https://apnews.com/article/opioids-fentanyl-drugs-addiction-painkillers-dea-e29d16194b0fd44b942fee2c3477390d

[dembotoz]

1. all well and good but if i break an arm today will they tell me to take aspirin

because the distributor for stronger stuff is gone

[Warpy]

2. They'll tell you to take Tylenol

Aspirin, Motrin, Aleve, and other NSAID drugs increase bleeding, bruising and swelling, not good.

You can start taking them a couple of weeks post fracture.

You can also visit an acupuncturist. That does help, surprisingly enough.

Just don't expect the standard of care for pain control to be met. The DEA is leaning very hard on doctors these days because a few went bad and ruined it for everybody.

Fuck the WoD. Fuck the DEA.

[jaxexpat]

5. That's 180 degrees off what this is all about.

>If the closure of a single distributor threatens the availability of crucial medication, it's about the politically preoccupied legislature's inability to legislate repair of an unregulated monopoly.
>If it's about anything it's about why, despite being on literally the whole nation's radar for over a decade, the distributor has not already been shut down and its corporate officers put in jail.
>If it's about creating a problem of availability for the consumer, it's about how it has gotten so difficult and complicated to fill legitimate prescriptions for pain medication because a line of red tape has been put in place. The new regulations, the red tape, are bureaucrats' answer to a problem caused by the failure of a system which ultimately relies on criminals to regulate themselves. The system and its proponents are still cranking along, business as usual, until their next outrage causes them to hire a bunch of lawyers to turn justice on its head again.
>It's about how the justice system abets the crime by, even after the verdict is in, allowing justification for delay and bad-faith strategy while the criminal continues his crime with impunity.

[Hekate]

6. Thank you

[LiberalArkie]

3. It took 4 years for the politically connected investors to get out of the stock?

I guess they wanted to ride the horse as long as they could..

[bucolic_frolic]

4. I won't touch tylenol

read the experiments they've done with it, or with other medications. i take an occasional aspirin. I also like pure water, acid neutralized. And exercise. Seems like they took other effective meds off market to promote opioids. Wait until they decides books are medications. Everything will be banned.

[FakeNoose]

7. To use the Sackler family as an example

... they had most of their ill-gotten gains (illegal profits) out of the country and in offshore banks long before the DEA slammed the door on them. It paved the way for other big pharma companies to do the same, where there was any question of illegal activity.

I know this isn't about the Sacklers, but we've seen all this before.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Waiting for the righties to complain about government interference in free enterprise