Washington, DC – On Thursday, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) and Democratic Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Representatives, Jim Cooper (TN-05), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), and Matt Cartwright (PA-17), sent a letter to the Acting Director of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) demanding answers about the agency’s failure to disclose its concerns about efforts that would make it easier for drug distributors to break the law. The letter comes on the heels of the troubling reports by The Washington Post and 60 Minutes that former high-ranking DEA officials authored and deceptively marketed legislation that undermines the agency’s ability to prevent companies from filling suspicious orders for large quantities of opioids.
“The DEA, charged with enforcing our nation’s drug laws, has not prevented the flow of opioids that posed an ‘imminent danger’ to communities across the country. This was due in large part to former DEA officials who left the agency, went to work for pharmaceutical companies manufacturing opioids, and launched a lobbying effort to slow DEA enforcement of these narcotics. Congress has a duty and obligation to fully investigate what happened, and we are calling on DEA to produce information detailing its interactions with Congress and the Administration, and disclose all ‘revolving door’ relationships between DEA and the pharmaceutical industry over the last 10 years,” said DeSaulnier.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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