SCREWING THE SICK PEOPLE

I laughed as I read this pathetic story about how the poor DEA has dozens of traumatized agents and lawyers who were rolled over by the bureaucracy above them who decided to not press for any $1 billion fine against a legal drug manufacturer and distributor. How could one not laugh at them?

‘We feel like our system was hijacked’: DEA agents say a huge opioid case ended in a whimper 

After two years of painstaking investigation, David Schiller and the rest of the Drug Enforcement Administration team he supervised were ready to move on the biggest opioid distribution case in U.S. history. 

The team, based out of the DEA’s Denver field division, had been examining the operations of the nation’s largest drug company, McKesson Corp. By 2014, investigators said they could show that the company had failed to report suspicious orders involving millions of highly addictive painkillers sent to drugstores from Sacramento, Calif., to Lakeland, Fla. Some of those went to corrupt pharmacies that supplied drug rings. 

The investigators were ready to come down hard on the fifth-largest public corporation in America, according to a joint investigation by The Washington Post and “60 Minutes.” (WT: this article is well worth the read, which includes an interview with retired DEA Agent David Schiller) 

The DEA team — nine field divisions working with 12 U.S. attorney’s offices across 11 states — wanted to revoke registrations to distribute controlled substances at some of McKesson’s 30 drug warehouses. Schiller and members of his team wanted to fine the company more than $1 billion. More than anything else, they wanted to bring the first-ever criminal case against a drug distribution company, maybe even walk an executive in handcuffs out of McKesson’s towering San Francisco headquarters to send a message to the rest of the industry. 

“This is the best case we’ve ever had against a major distributor in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration,” said Schiller, who recently retired as assistant special agent in charge of DEA’s Denver field division after a 30-year career with the agency. “I said, ‘How do we not go after the number one organization?’”

I have a number of problems with the idiots involved and with the idiot who wrote and published the piece about their effort to levy a billion dollar fine against a company who will simply turn that fine into higher costs for buyers of their drugs and simply not even feel the breeze as that pathetic lame ass shot goes by.

The investigators were 9 DEA Field Divisions of Agents and their lackeys and minions plus 12 U.S. Attorney's offices with all their lackeys and minions and they ALL TOOK 2 YEARS to come to the conclusion that a case could be made to sue McKesson Corp after two years of detailed investigating and digging. Why would they expect McKesson to have to delve that deep into their orders and stock management system in order to comply with the law? That seems really hugely intrusive and far beyond the capabilities of a mere corporation. I mean, just look at the level of effort it took the DEA and US Attorneys to figure out that something may not be alright in Livonia.

I'm sick and tired of paying the fines for all the corporations and their lawyers who walk away uncharged and unaccused after committing massive crimes and frauds on the people. The government lawyers always settle for a handful of dollars when the guilty parties are wealthy, well known, their guilt well established and yet they pay no penalty at all for screwing and stealing from the people and the government lawyers always help them get away. That's getting old.

Some of this is allegedly reported by The Washington Post and 60 minutes and therefore doesn't pass the smell test. I prefer honest sources for my facts and information and I'll pass up any that have a long history of lying and making stuff up and pawning it off on us as actual 'news'.

And finally, I realize that the government's helping hand is meant to be extended only to women, minorities, disadvantaged folks, illegal immigrants, dreamers and lone wolf terrorists but couldn't somebody in the DEA have simply picked up the phone, called McKesson and told them the DEA was concerned about some of the drug shipments they were making and in that way solved the problem? Wouldn't that have saved the millions of manhours they and the US Attorneys blew over 2 years trying to make a case against the company?

In the end, wouldn't it have been better if the DEA stopped acting like the gestapo and tried acting like an agency concerned with the health and well-being of the citizenry of the United States?