Read on Twitter
Feeling confused about what the government is going to do regarding WSB and GameStop and RobinHood? Let me take you on a wild and sexy ride through the world of federal regulatory enforcement!
I always beat the same drum, but I want to talk to you about the Opioid Crisis. I promise this is gonna loop back.
DEA, when not locking up kids for marijuana possession and then leaving them unattended in a cell over the holiday weekend, is ostensibly the agency tasked with regulating the pharmaceutical industry.
The opioid crisis started in 1996 when *a pharmaceutical company* touted a letter to the editor from 1980 as a “highly scrutinized study” that concluded that opioids are “rarely addictive”
By the time I joined DEA as a regulatory attorney in 2011, that pharmaceutical company had already been fined by Congress for lying to the American public about opioids efficacy and addictive nature. They paid a fine in the millions. And then got back to business.
I spent the first two years at DEA shutting down pill mills and rogue pharmacies all over the country. Especially in Florida. But every time we took down a bad doc, two more popped up. The market demand for drugs was through the roof.
I don’t need to get too into pill mills, but one “doctor” I shut down, we had to send in armed DEA special agents in riot gear. Because the doctor had an AR15 and a sawed off shotgun under his desk. Seized a cash counting machine and $1.5 million in cash. From a doctor’s office
Feeling like our ground level work wasn’t doing enough to stop the bleeding, we aimed higher up the food chain. To the distributors of opioids who knew what was happening and turned a blind eye.
We went after a major pharmacy chain. Of the top 30 distributors of opioids in the state of Florida, they owned roughly 20 of the top dispensing pharmacies (by quantity).
During the litigation, counsel for the pharmacy, a former Deputy Attorney General at the DOJ, reached out to the AG saying that DEA was not treating them fairly with the enforcement action, and asking that the AG step in to make us sit down to talk.
Their proposed solution was an apology and a Memorandum of Agreement where they promised to follow the law. Thing is, they’d already signed such MOA before. So had every other major distributor. We declined.
Long story short, that major pharmacy chain was made to pay. My co counsel and first chair on the case negotiated what was at the time the largest settlement in DEA history. We truly believed we had made a difference and would change the industry. https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2013/06/11/walgreens-agrees-pay-record-settlement-80-million-civil-penalties-under
Unfortunately, we did make a difference.
There are trade groups for the Big Three Distributors. There are trade groups for the major pharmacy chains. Not surprisingly, they have a lot of political clout.
So we at DEA, glowing with our success, started going after other major pharmacy chains and distributors. But instead of letting us file charging documents, new management would not let us charge cases.
We began to hear rumblings that Senators were directly contacting the Administrator of DEA demanding that we cease our enforcement actions and have sit downs with these companies so they could explain their side of the story.
In 2016, 2017, and 2018, estimated deaths from opioids were between 40,000 and 72,000. Thats in each year. So I apologize if I wasn’t interested in hearing “their side of the story”
These companies were making record profits. Hand over fist. And based on testimony and documents: they knew what they were doing. That record setting settlement? Basically a speeding ticket.
Management shut down our enforcement actions. Enacted new policy severely limiting what cases we could charge. Field offices were confused and livid. The attorneys were without work.
A congressperson, one of the biggest recipients of Pharmaceutical money, drafted a bill that would limit DEA’s ability to enforce regulations. It was sold as “stopping DEA from overreaching by shutting down pharmacies and now grandma can’t get her arthritis meds”
The Marino Act was passed without a single dissenting vote. They even came up with a cute name to make sure it sounded like it was protecting Americans https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensuring_Patient_Access_and_Effective_Drug_Enforcement_Act
Funded by Pharmaceutical companies. Introduced by a ghoul in the pocket of Big Pharma. Originally drafted by my former DEA boss. All it did was gobble DEA’s ability to go after the big pharmaceutical companies.
DEA stopped nearly all enforcement. In the next two years, opioids deaths hit record highs. And the politicians all thought they’d done something good.
Senator Claire McCaskill made a formal apology to the public on the record at a Senate hearing. She apologized for every congressperson who was led to believe the Marino Act was intended to help the public. I heard it first hand as I testified to the Senate as a whistleblower
Since then? A bunch of plaintiffs firms are making a lot of money suing opioid companies. My brother graduated from opioid addiction to heroin addiction. And the Marino Act has not been repealed.
Point is this: if you think the WSB scheme is going to make an impact, just think about this tale. The government regulators answer to industry. And industry is angry that the plebes messed with their money.
I am not trying to be pessimistic here. But over the next few days and weeks, as the politicians justify new rules that disallow regular people from doing the exact same thing that Industry does, think on this: The System is fucked. It’s stacked against you.
If you can see these things happen, our corporations controlling our government, and if this pisses you off? Congrats. You’re now radicalized. Welcome to the fight.
Source: “60 Minutes” episode The Whistleblower. Please tell my dad the blue suit worked.
Source 2: Washington Post Investigation. This should be my law firm pic, right? https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/
