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| DATE | 2021-01-02 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Wallmart and the Opiod Crisis
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Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Wallmart and the Opiod Crisis
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I thought it was WALLGREENS and NOT WALLMART that they sued, but
otherwise, this is a detailed and well thought out problem of the DOJ
and DEA and the opiate scare.
They side step a major issue though. The DEA empowers itself in
prestige and political power when it makes these drug busts, and that
leads to job security, bigger office budgets, and more money.
The DEA is every bit as corrupt as the MDs, patients and the Pharmacists
filling these scripts. A pox on them all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
wsj.com
Opinion | Scapegoating Walmart
The Editorial Board
6-7 minutes
A large poster announces new prices inside the Walmart pharmacy in
Clearwater, Fla., Sept. 22, 2006.
Photo: robert sullivan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Your browser does not support the audio tag.
Listen to this article
4 minutes
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more articles?
Give your feedback below or email audiofeedback-at-wsj.com.
One benefit of the Trump era has been the relative absence of dubious
lawsuits against business. An exception is the Justice Department=92s new
suit against Walmart for filling opioid prescriptions.
The lawsuit in federal court in Delaware claims that Walmart =93failed to
detect and report at least hundreds of thousands of suspicious orders=94
and that as a pharmacy it =93unlawfully filled thousands upon thousands of
invalid controlled-substance prescriptions.=94 These actions enabled
opioid abuse and =93helped fuel a national crisis,=94 the feds say.
The complaint alleges violations of the Controlled Substances Act and
its accompanying regulations, but it is really a 160-page exercise in
scapegoating a company because it is well-known and has deep pockets.
Walmart doesn=92t push pills on opioid addicts. Its pharmacists fill valid
prescriptions written by doctors who are licensed by their states and
registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
When Walmart=92s pharmacists catch a prescription that appears fraudulent
or forged, they are trained to refuse to fill it and document the
incident. Walmart says it has passed tens of thousands of leads about
suspicious prescriptions to state and federal law enforcement. It's the
job of the DEA and state medical boards to investigate and revoke
doctors=92 licenses and prescribing privileges if there=92s wrongdoing.
Yet the DEA rarely imposes such restrictions on physicians, and Walmart
has no authority to act on its own. When pharmacists have refused to
fill questionable prescriptions, doctors have sometimes sued for
defamation and patients have sometimes sued for discrimination. Several
states have prohibited pharmacists from interfering with the
doctor-patient relationship by second-guessing valid prescriptions.
No federal law supersedes these state laws. Instead, the DEA has issued
informal guidance on how pharmacists should ascertain whether an opioid
prescription is medically legitimate. But this guidance doesn=92t carry
the force of law or regulation, and it has sometimes contradicted other
federal guidance and statements on opioid dispensation.
Walmart notes that the DEA has suggested that some combinations of
opioids never have a legitimate medical purpose and should never be
filled. Yet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services continues to
cover these opioid combinations and wants such prescriptions to be
evaluated based on individual medical circumstances. Walmart filed a
pre-emptive suit in October seeking clarity about the standards for
handling prescriptions, but it has received no answers.
The DOJ complaint also includes more than 190 mentions of =93red flags=94
about suspicious opioid prescriptions. It claims Walmart often didn=92t
adequately resolve them and sometimes knowingly filled illegitimate
prescriptions despite the warnings. But Walmart notes in its lawsuit
that the Controlled Substances Act =93and its implementing regulations do
not include the concept of red flags, let alone identify any particular
factors as a red flag.=94
The feds try to side-step this problem by claiming that, under the
Controlled Substances Act and regulations, =93the pharmacist=92s conduct
must adhere to the usual course of his or her professional practice as a
pharmacist.=94 The complaint argues that catching and resolving =93red
flags=94 for opioid prescriptions is =93a well-recognized responsibility of
a pharmacist in the professional practice of pharmacy,=94 so =93failing to
fulfill this responsibility=94 is a violation of the federal law.
All of this raises constitutional issues based on a lack of legal
standing. A negligence claim like the one alleged here is supposed to
have a specific party claiming a specific injury caused by someone
specific. Those are typically claims by one private party against
another. The government can sue for violations of law, not because
someone was negligent. The government=92s claims of Controlled Substances
Act violations are so general that they seem contrived to add some
violation of law.
In effect DOJ is asking the federal court to overrule state law in favor
of informal federal guidance and a vague notion of pharmaceutical best
practices. This harassment was typical of the Obama era but it=92s
especially disappointing from the Trump Justice Department. The Biden
Administration will be happy to run with this prosecutorial abuse.
WSJ Opinion: The Misses of the Year
0:00 / 3:27
0:26
WSJ Opinion: The Misses of the Year
WSJ Opinion: The Misses of the Year
Journal Editorial Report: The worst of 2020 from Kim Strassel, Kyle
Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger and Paul Gigot. Photo: Associated
Press
Appeared in the December 30, 2020, print edition.
-- =
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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