dealer? do the distributors who pump the pain clinics in small communities full of pills do they count as a drug dealer? and if someone dies from that clinic, how far up the chain does this penalty go? i think this template starts the discussion. it didn t get into the specifics of how deep someone would be prosecuted for distribution of this drug. i think it was an overall to try to get the message out there, we are coming out with a clear template of what we want to talk about. it didn t specifically say who would be charged with murder if, in fact, that individual, in some way was the chain of giving out. we still have to actually wait for the president, wait for the white house to propose this. the reporting out from politico that it will include the death penalty for drug dealers. let me get to one more thing happening on tuesday. first, i want to start with a list. let s put the list on the screen. this is a list of the
joe rans sees is, i worked with him i know him. he ran the d.e.a. s division that was spoebl for drug addiction. exactly. when we are talking about opioids this suspect a drug being smuggled across the border, it s being prescribed by physicians and ever inning oftentimes right here in the united states. do you think this is really at the ends of the day that the epidemic that the united states is experiencing, i mean, is it does the responsibility lie with the drug companies? i think it s multiple facetted. when i looked at it and saw how complex it was, it wasn t like heroin being smuggled across the border. it was much more like doctors who really didn t have an awareness or education about this. it was pain clinics that were springing up. the pharmaceutical industry overselling the drugs and essentially admitting that these drugs aren t addictive when in fact the evidence shows that they are addictive. and this story i mean
it was my opinion that this made the whole crack epidemic look like nothing. these weren t kids slinging crack on the corner. these were professionals who were doing it. they were just drug dealers in lab coats. that was a former dea administrator. and a new investigative report on the opioid crisis by the washington post and 60 minutes. a report that takes you from shady pain clinics to multibillion-dollar drug companies to the hallowed halls of congress. it details the drug enforcement agency s effort to crack down on opioid pain killers and the hundreds of millions of pills flowing into pharmacies and pain clinics. it alleges the big money of the drug manufacturers had a chilling effect on the cases the dea pursued. also some members of congress allied with drug companies and
reporting, checking out court records, calling as many people as he could. he came across this guy who had been forced out of his job at the dea, joe rannazzini. he ran the division that oversees the pharmaceutical industry at the dea. he felt that he could not do his job at the height of this epidemic and he was forced out of his job in the face of intense pressure from the pharmaceutical industry on capitol hill that was reaching into the dea, that was reaching into the department of justice. we began to interview other people out in the field, dea investigators, men, women, very dedicated investigators, who said that their cases were being slowed down. so, suddenly, we found ourselves kind of in the middle of seeing the opioid wars from the front war between the dea and the pharmaceutical industry and members of congress and the dea was losing, shockingly. and these pain clinics that
get the ama or some other body to limit what doctors are free to prescribe in this area if the drug companies can t be blocked, if individuals can t be stopped from buying, can you get doctors stopped from overprescribing? that s really where the problem begins, is doctors who are overprescribing and doctors who are selling prescriptions for cash. the problem is that there are so many doctors who are doing that and there are so many pain clinics and pain management clinics doing this, the dea felt like they were playing a game of whack-a-mole. they felt they had to go up footed chain and make a difference by shutting down the companies that were sending these pills downstream. joe? joe scarborough here, scott. you re talking about these pill clivengs that were pop iing up.