Drain the Swamp?

The Titans play the Colts this week on Monday Night Football, so having no opportunity to be disappointed by the home team on Sunday afternoon I watched the Steelers beat the previously undefeated Chiefs. The broadcast networks use NFL games as a vehicle to promote their other programming and during the game I saw many promotional spots on the upcoming edition of 60 Minutes. One of these spots featured a segment on the opioid crisis so I decided to stay tuned just as I had been encouraged to do by Jim Nance.

The 60 Minutes segment highlighted the frustrations of a retired senior official of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) named Joe Rannazzisi. Historically the DEA had focused on the improper prescriptions being written by unscrupulous doctors operating out of so-called pain management clinics but with continued dramatic increases in the number of opioid overdoses and deaths, Mr. Rannazzisi began to focus on the supply chain in general and wholesale distributors in particular.

There are three companies that distribute the vast majority of opioids in the United States:

Cardinal Health: headquarters in Dublin Ohio, CEO George S. Barrett; 2017 compensation $11 million; 2017 company revenue $130 billion

McKesson: headquarters in San Francisco, CEO John H. Hammergren; 2017 compensation $97 million; 2017 company revenue $190 Billion

AmerisourceBergen: headquarters in Chesterbrook, Tredyffrin Township Pennsylvania, CEO Steven H. Collis; 2017 compensation $10 million; 2017 company revenue $136 Billion

These companies know exactly how many pills are shipped, whom they are shipped to, and how often they ship to each customer. They are required to alert the Federal Drug authorities of any suspicious shipments and take steps to halt or postpone any shipment they deem to questionable.

Between 2007 and 2012 the big three drug distributors made $17 billion by shipping 423 million opioids to West Virginia. The most famous example of this is the Sav Rite Pharmacy in Kermit West Virginia, which was shipped 9 million opioids over a two-year period. This might not seem suspicious on the surface except that Kermit has a population of less than 400 people, meaning that this single drug store received enough opioids for each person in Kermit to have 22,000 pills. That’s some serious pain relief, but I guess there’s nothing to see here.

 

 

When the Drug Enforcement Administration, particularly Mr. Rannazzisi began to look at these drug distributors they pushed back with their deep pockets and the influence deep pockets provide. The DEA had gone rogue, was totally out of control, and obviously focused on the wrong segment of the supply chain. If, and that is a big if, there is a problem it must be the doctors that are overprescribing, we the distributors are just trying to make an honest living, why are we being picked on by the jack booted thugs. Who can possibly help us?

How about good ole Marsha Blackburn, champion of the little guy, and the incandescent light bulb, she will make sure that renegade federal bureaucrats will not be able to prevent the good people of Kermit from having access to their much needed pain relief. Representative Blackburn was happy to oblige. In 2015 she co-sponsored House Bill HR 471 otherwise known as the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2015.

As Federal legislation goes, it is a pretty simple bill, it amends Section 303 of the Controlled Substances Act which addresses the distribution of schedule I and II drugs. Prior to the passage of HR 471, if the DEA suspected a shipment was inappropriate they could place an immediate freeze on that shipment, but the new law reversed that provision with this section:

“An order to show cause under paragraph (1) shall—contain a statement of the basis for the denial, revocation, or suspension, including specific citations to any applicable laws, direct the applicant or registrant to appear before the Attorney General at a time and place stated in the order, but not less than 30 days after the date of receipt of the order; and notify the applicant or registrant of the opportunity to submit a corrective action plan on or before the date of appearance.”

This effectively makes it impossible for the DEA to stop shipments of drugs they feel may be outside the confines of legitimate distribution channels.

Marsha Blackburn represents the 7^th House District of Tennessee which incudes many rural counties west of Nashville. The state publishes statistics by county on opioid deaths if the county has more than 12 deaths in one year. This is done to protect the privacy of families impacted by this scourge, but makes it difficult to determine the actual toll in District 7 due to the sparse population of many of its counties. During 2015 in two of the largest counties in her District, Montgomery and Williamson there were 36 and 25 deaths respectively due to opioid overdoses.

 

With the announcement by Bob Corker that he would not seek reelection to the US Senate, Blackburn has declared her candidacy for his seat and immediately became   the front-runner in the eyes of many. This table shows contributions to Blackburn’s prior House campaigns from the Pharmaceutical industry.

2008	$60,450
2010	$86,217
2012	$120,993
2014	$168,850
2016	$172,685

Apparently a friend in need is a friend indeed!

While Marsha was busy protecting her wealthy drug distribution friends and running for reelection in 2015 and 2016, opioid deaths in Tennessee totaled 3082.

Stripping the DEA of its ability to combat drug distribution companies from shipping 9 million pills to one drug store in a town of 400 people and selling this bill as a way to ensure access is the very height of disingenuousness and should be an insult to all Americans and an embarrassment to the people of Tennessee. Even for a politician, this shows a stunning lack of principle and a flagrant disregard for the people she was elected to represent.

With her willingness to co-sponsor HR 471, Marsha Blackburn has shown in vivid high-definition that she places protecting her campaign war chest over the health and safety of the people of Tennessee and instead of being part of the solution, she prefers to be part of the problem.

God help you if you get caught growing a single pot plant in your yard here in Tennessee. This dastardly criminal act is  punishable by 1-6 years in prison and a $5000 fine. But if you want to manufacture and distribute the most destructive and deadly of all drugs, then you have a friend and ally in United States Representative Marsha Blackburn. She will make sure your customers have unfettered access.

Politicians have long attacked the manufacture, distribution, sale, possession, and use of drugs they deem to be unsuitable for the people of the United States to consume. They have criminalized every step of the drug chain and in many cases imposed very severe penalties for any violation. This approach has been an utter failure.

What I notice in the current opioid crisis is that politicians are singularly focused on the back end issue of opioid addiction. They want to pour money into treatment and prevention, which are desperately needed, but there is absolutely no discussion about restricting the manufacturing and distribution of these products. With the numbers we are seeing on manufacturing  and distribution of opioids, drastic reductions could be implemented without the least interruption in access to people that have a valid need for these products.

As long as we have politicians like Marsha Blackburn, who willingly disguise their true motives behind the facade of helping working people, this problem is going to continue to devastate the lives of thousands of Tennesseans every year. How much is too much? How many lives is it worth for Marsha’s friends in the opioid distribution industry to maintain their lucrative business model and continue to increase their contributions to her?

I hope we have reached our limit of tolerance and will, in the next election cycle, demand candidates that will attack this national emergency at the source and limit the manufacture and distribution of these harmful, deadly products.

Just on this issue alone Marsha Blackburn does not deserve the support of honest, hard working Tennesseans; people that really do have principles and make an honest effort to live by those principles.  We need someone in the Senate that will place the health and welfare of our state’s citizens above the interests of rich corporate donors and distributors of death.

 

Love To All!