Posted on 10/30/2019 8:24:42 AM PDT by grumpygresh
The DEA has failed miserably in keeping illicit fentanyl and its analogs out of this country (3) so the agency, like lawmakers, has doubled down on pills, even as more and more evidence emerges that pills are not only not the primary (or even close) culprit in causing overdose deaths, but there is a real inverse relationship between the number of prescriptions and overdoses, something I have written about numerous times in the past.
(Excerpt) Read more at acsh.org ...
Red Lawhern made a good point under the comments:
“I think it’s time to clean house in that benighted organization by firing their Administrator plus Department heads and key staff within their Operations division, Inspection division, and Intelligence division, on grounds of gross managerial incompetence and policy misdirection. In the most recent proposed drug quota announcement, DEA admitted that they are unable to trace more than 1% of current retail volume of prescription opioids to diversion. They are also cutting back vitally needed surgical anesthetics and post-surgical pain relievers that are already in shortage across US hospitals in the 50 States.
I can only suggest that this ineptitude reflects a willful refusal to properly integrate existing DEA in-house databases which supposedly track drug deliveries all the way from manufacturers to importers to US distributors to pharmacies. There may be grounds for investigating DEA personnel under criteria of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. While the process can be complex, it’s not rocket science and DEA has had literally decades to get its act together.”
I agree. Laws like this though well meant actually will drive more people to illicit supplies of needed medication and fuel the cartels.
If visa and master charge can track every swipe at McDonald’s, doctors who are issuing hundreds of scripts for opioids could be red flagged without hurting patients. That would cut off one small source.
The bigger source is the failed state of mexico and the enemy state China. Neither are our friends. What can we do to them?
Just a small note: that's not DEAs job its Customs and Border Protections.
They say that like it is something new. Like the BATFE, they've been doing violence to the Constitution since the department was founded.
the dea has agents in dozens of countries and domestically.
At this point I don’t think that it’s unreasonable for them to continue operations overseas, but we really do need them to stay out of domestic operations because they operate in secret and cannot really be held to account as a state agency could. Do you realize how hard it is to investigate a federal agency? How hard it is to get documents?
We can’t expect a law enforcement solutions to a moral problem. A federal agency like the dea is certainly no way to solve this problem. They have had 50 years to try and they have FAILED.
If you are suggesting that these operations should be left to the states I can't necessarily disagree. But we can't just stop all enforcement or there would be a meth lab on every block.
Can we win the war on drugs? NO but we can minimize the effects on society as best we can.
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