WASHINGTON D.C.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that, over the next 45 days, the DEA will crack down on pharmacies and prescribers who are dispensing unusual or disproportionate amounts of drugs.
Those pharmacies will be targeted based on data of about 80 million transaction reports that were analyzed by federal authorities.
“Our country is in the midst of a drug abuse crisis, enabled and worsened by rampant drug trafficking and prescription drug diversion,” said 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 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, according to federal officials.
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 hotspot 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, according to authorities.