’60 Minutes’: DEA thwarted on opioid epidemic
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s attempts to curb the opioid epidemic as deaths increased were thwarted by powerful forces in Washington, according to a joint report by “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post.
The report, which airs at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on CBS, was previewed Friday morning on “CBS This Morning.” The story will appear in the Post’s Sunday edition.
Every day in this country, 91 people die in the crisis.
Reporters Bill Whitaker of “60 Minutes” and Scott Higham of The Post talked about the investigation, which makes the point that big companies have been complicit in the drug deaths.
Joe Rannazzisi, a former deputy assistant administrator, blasts distributors for fueling the epidemic and ignoring the deadly toll. “This is an industry that allowed millions and millions of drugs to go into bad pharmacies and doctors’ offices that distributed them out to people who had no legitimate need for those drugs,” he tells Whitaker.
How bad is the situation?
“This is an industry that’s out of control,” Rannazzisi said. “What they want to do is do what they want to do, and not worry about what the law is. If they don’t follow the law in drug supply, people die. That’s just it.”
In the preview Friday morning, the reporters said that DEA investigators were running up against a drug industry that’s incredibly powerful in Washington because of lobbying and spending in Congress.
Whitaker said the distributors ship the drugs and are required to keep track of every pill, but one West Virginia town of 300 people received 9 million opioid pills over several years. “The DEA whistleblowers we talked to said that happened again and again and again,” Whitaker said.
The bottom line: The drug companies are more influential with lawmakers than their constituents’ suffering, Whitaker said.
The DEA people saw cases they were building languish and “die on the vine” in Washington because of lobbying, Higham said.
The report on “60 Minutes” will be double in length. The six-month investigation is also the work of Lenny Bernstein of The Post and ”60 Minutes” producers Ira Rosen and Sam Hornblower.
hboedeker@orlandosentinel.com and 407-420-5756.
“This is an industry that allowed millions and millions of drugs to go into bad pharmacies and doctors’ offices that distributed them out to people who had no legitimate need for those drugs,
These same DEA licensees were granted licenses to prescribe/dispense controlled substances BY THE DEA… as well as the state medical/pharmacy licensing boards giving them licenses/authority to prescribe/dispense controlled substances. BUT…the DEA/ medical/pharmacy licenses boards have no responsibility or culpability in what happened ?
Like a lot of other things in our country no one accepts personal responsibility for what happens…. it must be the FAULT OF SOMEONE ELSE.
Filed under: General Problems
Pain Patients are tragically ignored and everyday it gets worse. We have been wrongly lumped in with Addicts; can you picture this happening to you or a loved one? The media is not hearing about us and as a result all people hearing are all about Addicts. I believe anyone that looks at these links will be glad they did. We need help to educate those who are making decisions on this issue. I’ve included links that will educate you and the articles are backed by Research.
Chronic Pain and Opioids Reading List
1 https://edsinfo.wordpress.com/pain/chronic-pain-reading-list/
Opioids in chronic pain: 17 Case Reports
2 https://edsinfo.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/opioids-in-chronic-pain-17-case-reports/
Chronic Pain Patients Did Not Cause Opioid Epidemic
3 http://ushealthtimes.com/chronic-pain-patients-did-not-cause-opioid-epidemic/
“Every day in this country, 91 people die in the crisis.”. Presently, pain patient SUICIDES have topped 160 DAILY thanks to this BOGUS “crisis”.
I have yet to see any of these so called “experts”, prove that pain meds killed these people instead of the actual culprit, HEROIN!!!
Call it like it is…your HEROIN CRISIS, grown, protected, and manufactured by our own government!! In 2001 when the CIA got involved in fields, production was 180 tons. Currently, under U.S. protection, production is now 4800 TONS, 90% which is used for HEROIN! Why do you think all these “safe shooting galleries” and addiction clinics have popped up nationwide??
The public were finally being informed of Afghanistan poppy fields so our government decided to take the heat off themselves by starting a “pain med crisis”.
You want facts, ask any cancer/pain patient completely cut off meds. We’ve done our research. We don’t get paid to spread “Opioid Crisis” bullshit like 60 Minutes!
You are exactly right here in calling out the true culprit that is causing this exponential escalation in deaths from this fabricated Opioid Crisis. I seriously consider this to be a planned Purge of Chronic Pain Patients. What we need is to purge the Federal Agencies that are promoting this failed Drug War! Keep posting this everywhere as Social Media is the best form of messaging.
Another biased and false story by 60 Minutes!! I stopped watching this show about a year ago when they presented their first false report on false opioid epidemic!!
The 60 minutes “opioid Crisis” story is very poor journalism because it doesn’t differentiate pain pills from illicit opioids, which is very one-sided. The DEA has been known in the past during the cocaine cartels to break many laws (murder, extortion, etc.) to sustain its purpose, justification and budget. This is not made public on a daily basis, as there is a bias. 60 minutes needs to check statistics on the so-call opioid related pain pill deaths, some of which are cancer patients who were prescribed pain killers The fallout of the pursuit (hidden budgetary agenda) of legal pain medications was intended to divert chronic pain patients to seek illegal opioid [heroin] substances to fill the need for pain medication and to keep DEA relevant. And the hypocrisy is that these Joe Friday agents are able to obtain unlimited amounts of alcohol and tobacco to feed their addictions and need for pain relief of which most chronic patients cannot use because of contra-indication. The one-sided story is a direct plagiarism of a Dragnet script and essentially points the finger at everyone but the DEA itself, i.e., an organization that dress its agents in black with masks — like terrorists — and call its director — Czar. I am on pain meds because of a plethora of diseases and/or conditions and so forth. I take 4 pills per 24 hours so I can have some semblance of a quality of life … I take triple the amount of pills … from 3 separate medications … for my diabetes. Please separate illegal drugs from legal drugs that were invented for a necessary reason … which is not to keep the DEA bureaucracy employed. If I could, I would drink a 12 pack to reduce my pain because of the availability is everywhere, Furthermore, I am sure cigarettes would help with anxiety. Or, I can declare myself a drug addict and get methadone without any shortage problem. How ironic that the DEA does not care about the deaths caused from these products, i.e., cigarettes, alcohol, methadone, etc.
The issue klonodyn has accomplished is slanderously combining a street drug w/a medicine by combining ANYTHING made from the poppy flower,,THEY SHOULD OF NEVER BEEN COMBINED,EVER,,,FOR PEOPLE W/LEGITIMATE MEDICAL REASON FOR PHYSICAL PAIN ARE NOW BEING DENY’D ACCESS TO MEDICINES THAT EFFECTIVELY LESSEN PHYSICAL PAIN,,IE,,,,TORTURE!!! it needs to go back to,,,heroin is heroin,,and ANY medicine prescribe lawfully,a compounded chemical formula designed in legitimate medical laboratories,,is a medicine,,,NOT,,, a drug,,,and ,”informed consent,”needs to be honored in our court rooms,,,for this whole mess,,has been created by klonodyn, a dea and doj who was just itchen for anything,,even going after thee innocent,,,to trump up charges,,,to ,”look good,” and get monies from our good doctors,,even if they had to lie to do it!!!,,maryw
Lol
You are so right.
I agree with Robert. I do not believe this report. I also stopped watching 60 Minutes when they had a previous false report!
Hell fire, everytime anyone in my church had anything other than a minor medical problem (and they had many, they were all elderly, their children had all long since left for cities and suburbs), they had to drive to Atlanta or Asheville, N.C. – both of them 120 miles away, and I had to follow behind them. 240 miles round trip to get adequate medical care! Granted, there was a local hospital, with about 40 beds, to serve a county of 26,000 people, and the surrounding counties for miles.
I’m sorry, I really want to know where this little opioid afflicted town in West Virginia is. Has anyone here ever even been to these remote mountainous regions of West Virginia? State flower is a satellite dish. This not Kolodny’s beloved NYC, or Ballantyne’s Seattle. . . .
Sorry for the long sentences.
I looked,,it is centrally located between 3 states,,,maryw
“one West Virginia town of 300 people received 9 million opioid pills over several years . . . ”
When I was serving as a United Methodist pastor in Murphy, N.C., I learned that annual revenues for the WalMart Supercenter there were ~$96,000,000. There were around 1500 people living in Murphy, N.C. at the time. That means that this particular WalMart had $64,000 in revenue for each citizen of Murphy, N.C. That would mean that the average family of 3 was spending $192,000 a year at WalMart! How!? Beats me! Per capita income is less than 17,000 per year, and 22.9% of the population lives below the poverty line. I mean, it was an epidemic. The worst in their history. Flooded with cheap, readily available chips and dip. The horror, the horror!
I’d really like to know which West Virginia town has 300 people and was “flooded” with 9 million opioid pills. Maybe they had a WalMart that drew people from a circle 40 miles in radius because they were in the middle of nowhere.
I am so weary of dishonest, misleading statistics used in PROP talking points.
I’m so disappointed in 60 Minutes – stopped respecting them years ago. What about good investigative journalism, instead of just repeating hand fed talking points prepared for you by the people you are interviewing?
DID THE MATH ON THE 2 MILL..LIE,,,,,THAT IS 1 PRESCRIBTION OF 30 PILLS,,A TYPICAL 5 DAY SCRIPT,,,FOR 650,000…NOW,,TAKE A LOOK AT THE PHARMACY’S LOCATION,,,,IT IS A TRI-STATE PHARMACY,,SOO,,,U R LOOKING AT 225,000,,,1,,,,5 DAY SCRIPT IN 8 MONTH,,,OVER 2 YEARS,,,,,UNDERSTAND,,,,btw,,cbs censored my data on that proof,,soo their in on this opoiatephobic prohibition crap maryw
It is fake NEWS