Is the DEA ramping up their visible actions against just about any entity that is involved with controlled substances to help itself have points of argument why they need current – or increase – their budgets. Here is a article that describes some of the newer tactics.
A number of years ago… the GAO .. rated all other government agencies on how they had reached the agency stated goals.. the score for the DEA — ZERO !
Anyone who believes that this has changed much since… are probably drinking the DEA “Kool-Aid”.
We are sitting on a 16 trillion debt and growing… it is something that will have to be addressed sooner or later.. unless we want to end up like Greece and some of the other European countries… on the precipice of financial collapse.
Has anyone noticed that the DEA has seemingly made a very dedicated attempt to increase the visibility of the number of “busts” they have made.. Of course, our laws allows any agency involved with the war on drugs… gets to keep all monies generated from fines and property seized and sold.. to help them buy more “toys” to catch the bad guys.
The DEA seems to be going after any entity that is licensed by the DEA …that they believe are distributing controlled substances outside “normal limits”…
Unlike the Mexican drug cartels.. the entities that they are now going after… for the most part .. have a very good paper trail… to document what/where the controlled substances have been sold to.
And unlike the drug cartels… the wholesalers, pharmacies/Pharmacists/prescribers are generally not armed to the teeth and don’t shoot at law enforcement. That being said… it is reported that these “DEA RAIDS” are done with SWAT like tactics. Which if you think about it.. it is not much more than moving their focus to akin to “shooting fish in a barrel”
Is all this high profile in the media .. over all of these increased number of raids.. of otherwise ethical/legit distribution of controlled substances… just a “smoke/mirrors” tactic to give the DEA the fodder to take to Congress to try to convince that the DEA is “doing it job”… to protect their bureaucratic budget/power .
And the DEA admits in the article.. it is all about putting the “fear of god” into everyone.. what is unfortunate… we are going after 5% of a population that will abuse/divert drugs.. and that leaves 95% that may end up without having their medically necessary medications. We are picking on ones that are short on mental/physical energy to fight the system.
How do you fight a system.. and/or avoid “crossing the line” that seems to be variable and interpretations as to where a entity is in relation to that line is subjective..
Filed under: General dumb-ass problems
The DEA’s recent $50 million settlement against Omnicare is evidence of this. The DEA does not give a damn about patient care and will constantly change it’s “interpretation” of the laws every time it needs to fill it’s coffers. Long Term Care pharmacies were meeting patient’s needs and there was no diversion occurring when we were filling narcotic scripts like inpatient scripts, and were doing so for many, many years. This changed when a DEA agent in Ohio decided to make a name for himself and raid a pharmacy there. They then allowed us to pre-populate scripts to send to the doctors to sign, but once again the “interpretation” changed. The DEA needs to focus on the criminals and make sure the distributors are in line, but it needs to quit interfering with the professional that are trying to get meds to the people who truly need them.