The report, in one example, described how the DEA authorized a 400 percent increase in the production of oxycodone, a common prescription opioid between 2002 and 2013. The agency only started to significantly reduce the oxycodone production quota in 2017—with a 25 percent cut.
While the OIG acknowledged the DEA had taken some action to address the crisis in recent years, they said the agency didn’t do enough to address the significant rise in opioid use and diversion of opioids since the early 2000s. The report, in addition, detailed shortfalls in the DEA’s policies and regulations they said: “did not adequately hold registrants accountable or prevent the diversion of pharmaceutical opioids.”
Continuing in his statement, Horowitz also said the agency “does not capture sufficient data to detect emerging drug trends or suspicious orders in a timely manner, which may have contributed to its overall slow response to the opioid crisis.”
“How else do you explain how something like this could be allowed to continue, despite the known dangers, year after year?”
The OIG, in its review, examined the regulatory activities and enforcement efforts of the DEA from the fiscal year 2010 to 2017 in regard to what it did to combat the opioid epidemic. The report’s introduction described the crisis as not only affecting public health but also the social and economic welfare of the country.
To help the DEA better combat the crisis, the OIG made nine recommendations that will help the agency’s ability to detect the diversion of opioids. The Justice Department and the DEA have all agreed with these recommendations.
‘Unacceptable on Every Level’
The OIG report also identifies weaknesses in the DEA’s registration process. The agency is responsible for vetting and registering anyone who wishes to handle controlled substances, including manufacturers, distributors, and health care practitioners.Registrants, after having their registration revoked or surrendered, could reapply for registration again the day after, the OIG found. Greco described this as “appalling.”
“To call this appalling is an insult to the word appalling,” he said. “It doesn’t come close to explaining just how egregious this lackluster enforcement on the people who have made millions, if not billions, was in this deadly game.
“People are dying every day from it and all we get is a paper identifying the many ways in which the DEA has failed to do the one and only job that mattered most? This is unacceptable on every single level imaginable.”
Another OIG finding said the DEA didn’t “adequately collect, maintain, or analyze data in order to identify trends in use of controlled substances.” The DEA’s system of collecting suspicious orders was also incomplete.
Robert C. Whitley, an attorney based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who has been working with the local community to combat the opioid epidemic, said that his initial reaction to the OIG report is positive, as it’s an indication the Trump administration is stepping up efforts to address the problems.
“The OIG report does make it clear that prior to the Trump administration, the DEA was definitely lax on staying up with addressing the problems and regulatory issues relating to opioids, particularly the diversion of opioids,” he told The Epoch Times.
The OIG report did say both the justice department and the DEA recently increased efforts to address the opioid epidemic, “including increasing enforcement staffing and enforcement actions, and working more closely with federal and state partners.” But the office states that more work is needed.
“While only a minute fraction of the more than 1.8 million manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and prescribers registered with DEA are involved in unlawful activity, DEA continuously works to identify and root out the bad actors,” the spokesperson said via email.
“In the past eight years, DEA removed approximately 900 registrations annually, preventing further diversion of controlled substances.”
