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Looking out for the drug industry

3 min read
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When people grumble about Congress – and, let’s face it, that’s been happening since its founding in 1789 – one of the most common laments is that they ostensibly work for us, but do they really? Are their real constituents the lobbyists who swarm around their offices and the high rollers who finance their campaigns?

That question has certainly gained more urgency is recent days following revelations by The Washington Post and the CBS News program “60 Minutes” that legislation approved by Congress last year impeded the ability of the Drug Enforcement Administration to stem the flow of painkillers to disreputable pharmicists and the black market, deepening the opioid crisis and costing who knows how many lives.

Aside from the unheralded lives that were cut short by the legislation, another casualty came to light Tuesday: U.S. Rep. Tom Marino, a Republican who represents Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. He pushed the bill and had been due to direct the Office of National Drug Control Policy. However, Marino withdrew his name from consideration Tuesday after some lawmakers, including West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin, urged President Trump look elsewhere for an appointee.

Here’s how the legislation worked: Saying that it would help those who honestly need painkillers, such as veterans or the elderly, the industry-friendly legislation hampered the ability of the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop suspiciously large shipments of pain medication from drug distributors. Before the law, the DEA could immediately halt pill shipments to a pharmacy if, say, the number of pills they were ordering increased tenfold in a one-month period. This meant that more opioids were able to spill onto the black market and get to disreputable doctors who did not have the best interests of their patients at heart.

According to the Post, “With a few words, the new law changed four decades of DEA practice. Previously, the DEA could freeze drug shipments that posed an ‘imminent danger’ to the community, giving the agency broad authority. Now, the DEA must demonstrate that a company’s actions represent ‘a substantial likelihood of an immediate threat,’ a much higher bar.”

The law sailed through both houses of Congress on a consent vote, which is usually reserved for uncontroversial fare, and was signed by President Obama. It stands to reason that a lot of lawmakers, and Obama, did not exactly understand what they were rubber-stamping.

Nevertheless, it pleased the drug industry.

Joseph T. Rannazzisi, who once ran the part of the DEA that oversees the industry, told the Post, “The drug industry, the manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and chain drugstores, have an influence over Congress that has never been seen before. I mean, to get Congress to pass a bill to protect their interests in the height of an opioid epidemic shows just how much influence they have.”

That opioid epidemic, by the way, has now claimed in excess of 200,000 American lives, four times the number killed in the Vietnam War. This region is one of the hardest hit in the nation.

Again, the question must be asked: Who do they work for?

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