Federal Prosecutors will end opioid epidemic by closing pill mills (really)

[cduggles]

The Latest: Democrats criticize Sessions' plan on addiction

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Aug 2, 2017, 2:30 PM ET

Source

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the Justice Department will dispatch 12 federal prosecutors to cities ravaged by addiction.

The prosecutors will focus exclusively on investigating health care fraud and opioid scams that are fueling the nation's drug abuse epidemic.

Sessions unveiled the pilot program during a Wednesday speech in hard-hit Ohio, where eight people a day die of accidental overdoses.

Sessions is calling the group of prosecutors the "opioid fraud and abuse detection unit."

The attorney general says prosecutors will rely on data in the efforts to root out pill mills and find health care providers who illegally prescribe or distribute narcotics.

More than 52,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2015 — a record — and experts believe the numbers have continued to rise.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Yes, more criminal prosecutions will solve the problem... I loath scapegoating anyone, whether they're end users, folks trying to support their habit or even people who improperly prescribe or otherwise deal the stuff.

Improper prescriptions are only a very, very small part of what has lead us to where we are today with opioid use. I'd say it has far more with social alienation, lack of any meaningful mental healthcare system, poverty - in a world shitty living conditions.

Prosecuting doctors who prescribe opioids to known "addicts" is one of the oldest tricks in the book of Prohibitionists and drug warriors. Hello Herber Hoover.

Funny how no matter what changes, history has this tendency to repeat itself. Given how fickle our collective memory is, this approach is however a highly effective political tool. Just as scapegoating is generally.

As they say: first as tragedy, second as farce.

 

[cduggles]

TPD, I am completely stunned by this plan. It's completely against the recommendations of the Committee that Governor Chris Christie chaired and Jared Kushner participated.
I posted these recommendations in another thread here and I am curious to see comments on both!

 

[neversickanymore]

looks like they are trying to reduce the problem in the future.

As far and bringing an "end" to this.. no way.

It will also drive current pharm users to heroin and fent laced heroin.

They need to work on a multi pronged approach.

 

[aihfl]

As far and bringing an "end" to this.. no way.

I can only go by what has happened in Florida where I live. We were at one time ground zero for the prescription opioid crisis. Doctors here prescribed more opioids than every other state combined and the state intervened in 2010 passing regulations that limited the amount of opioids an individual patient could receive and prohibited doctors from directly dispensing opioids in their offices.

It will also drive current pharm users to heroin and fent laced heroin.

This is exactly what has happened since 2010 in Florida. Some blame the DEA and pharma for setting quotas too high on the manufacture of opioids (the Miami New Times stated that the current quota for oxy is about 40 times what it was in 1993) but reducing the quota just brings us back to the issue of street heroin.

 

[spacejunk]

this is so fucked up.
making it even harder for people in pain to get medicine to help manage that.
what an incompetent bunch of creeps in this administration; it's mind-blowing. such toxic ideologues.
this is going to kill people, as they turn to black market opioids, thus coming in contact with people pushing fent (and fent analogues) in the form of fake pharmaceutical pills or dope.

awful

 

[DogLover123757]

I would think it would take more than 12 prosecutors going to 12 hard hit areas to even put a dent in this issue. Until they reel in and deal with the Big Pharma companies that actually make these opioids, the problem with be the same or even worse. Seems like a generic attempt to make the citizens of this country believe they are getting "tough" with this problem.

 

[Felonious Monk]

These GOP dinosaurs are too old to have new ideas. Just cull them and get some new blood in the decision-making process. The only new trick Sessions could learn would be more cruelty.

 

[spacejunk]

it's like the last gasp of 1950s dogma.
i wish these politicians would let doctors get on with practicing medicine. just because opiates/opioids are addictive doesn't mean they're not needed by patients.
not just wanted, but needed. people like sessions need to stop punishing vulnerable people so they can pretend they're fixing a problem that - at this point - seems to have very little to do with prescription opioids.
ten years ago, maybe - but hasn't the horse already bolted on this one?

if they wanted to stop people dying of fent overdoses, they should start a scheme to prescribe heroin to addicts.
they could probably prevent over 90% of overdose deaths overnight - if they had the guts to do it.

it's a shame that this administration doesn't give a flying fuck about what the voters think - yet they're not the slightest bit interested in making any meaningful, bold reforms.

if trump had come out and signed an executive order to legalise all drugs tomorrow, i might have a tiny bit of respect for the guy.

but this is just backwards. business as usual.