Crime

Sessions Creates Unit To Go After Doctors, Pharmacies Pushing Opioids

The new unit, which Sessions called a "data analytics program," will "identify and prosecute" those who are "contributing to this opioid epidemic."

Sessions Creates Unit To Go After Doctors, Pharmacies Pushing Opioids
Getty Images
SMS

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his department's next step in battling opioid abuse: A new team dedicated to clamping down on a major source of the drugs.

Sessions described the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit as a "data analytics program." It'll study information about opioid prescriptions — like which doctors overprescribe pain pills — and use its findings to prosecute opioid-related health care fraud.

This is a pilot program; Sessions assigned 12 prosecutors to investigate and prosecute opioid-related fraud in 12 districts around the lower 48 states.

Sessions recently announced sweeping arrests of more than 400 people involved in health care fraud. More than 120 of those arrested were dealing in opioids or other narcotics. 

The Trump administration has picked up its focus on opioid abuse — the White House opioid commission recently said the U.S. was "in a crisis" and lobbied President Trump to declare a state of emergency.

Sen. Cory Booker Proposes Nationwide Marijuana Legalization
Sen. Cory Booker Proposes Nationwide Marijuana Legalization

Sen. Cory Booker Proposes Nationwide Marijuana Legalization

The proposed Marijuana Justice Act would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act.

LEARN MORE

Since 1999, opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled — now, more than three out of every five drug overdose deaths involve some type of opioid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.