The U.S. Justice Department released
the below information:
Attorney General Jeff
Sessions announced yesterday that, over the next 45 days, the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) will surge Special Agents, Diversion Investigators, and
Intelligence Research Specialists to focus on pharmacies and prescribers who are
dispensing unusual or disproportionate amounts of drugs. To intensify the fight
against prescription drug diversion, DEA will utilize data from approximately
80 million transaction reports it collects every year from prescription drug
manufacturers and distributors. DEA will aggregate and analyze this data, which
includes distribution figures and inventory of prescription drugs, to identify
patterns, trends, and statistical outliers that can be developed into targeting
packages.
“Our country is in the midst
of a drug abuse crisis, enabled and worsened by rampant drug trafficking and
prescription drug diversion,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “This surge
of resources by the Drug Enforcement Administration will help us make more
arrests, secure more convictions, and reduce the number of diverted or
unnecessary prescription drugs causing addiction and overdose.”
The surge announced yesterday
is the latest in a series of efforts by the Department of Justice to turn the
tide of the opioid epidemic and reduce the inevitable violent crime that
accompanies widespread drug trafficking. In August, the Department announced a
new data analytics program, the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, which
uses data to identify and prosecute individuals who are contributing to the
opioid epidemic. The Department has also assigned experienced prosecutors to
opioid hot spot districts to focus solely on investigating and prosecuting
opioid-related health care fraud, and the DEA has reorganized its field
divisions for the first time in nearly 20 years to increase its effectiveness
nationwide.
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