I haven’t watched “60 Minutes” in a year or more but a
segment they did on McKesson Corporation caught my eye. McKesson’s largest profile is as a
distributor of medical technology. It also supplies pharmaceuticals to medical
facilities and pharmacies around the nation.
The segment I watched was called “Too Big to Prosecute” and
the broadcast depended entirely on the presentation by David Schiller, a
retired 30 year DEA special agent. I know
and you know all DEA agents are not alike. The agents who work dangerous smuggling and
interdiction cases risk their lives and stress their families.
It isn’t news that the U.S. has a huge illegal narcotics
problems. It also has a huge legal
narcotics problem. But CBS 60 Minutes
and similar entities are part of the problem for the simple reason that they wish to pretend that big business is always to blame while the individuals
consuming drugs are not.
Therefore they listen
to jackass David Schiller tryin to tell them
McKesson was responsible for America’s
opiate addiction.
The DEA’s own lawyers refuse to prosecute McKesson in
criminal court because they have no case and would be sure to lose. 60 Minutes presents this as a dark conspiracy
in which the motives of big business and DEA lawyers are aligned. 60 Minutes
did not interview a single DEA lawyer to explain why they chose not to
prosecute McKesson for, if they did, the silliness of this segment would have
been exposed.
McKesson
distributes pills to pharmacies and hospitals,
some small part of which are disreputable, unethical, if not outright
corrupt. But is McKesson responsible for
every facility, pharmacy, or legitimate small business that requests a delivery
or fills a prescription? Is McKesson
responsible for overprescribing doctors?
Are they responsible for drug store robberies, illegal labs in the U.S
and other countries which make counterfeit versions of legitimate drugs? Is McKesson responsible for the the fool who crushes
oxycodone into a liquid and shoots it into his/her arm?
The only reason the DEA put the squeeze on McKesson is
because of political pressure from people like Senator Maggie Hassan of New
Hampshire. New Hampshire is not alone in
its opioid addiction problem but the difference is that Hassan sees political
opportunity in it.
‘Opioid addiction’ is the current popular buzzword politicians can rely on to
convince Americans they are actually doing something. ‘Opioid addiction’ is real but bludgeoning a
population with buzzwords is only a way to hide deeper problems. Chicago is on track to beat its former record
of 716 homicides, many of these due to gang wars over drug selling
turf. Common sense tells you that ghetto
drug wars are not fought over pharmaceutical opioids, although these pills
would certainly be in the mix. Cocaine,
heroin, MDMA, meth, an entire pharmacopoeia
of drugs are smuggled into the U.S. daily.
The focus on “opioid addiction,” parroted most recently by New York
governor Andrew Cuomo is meant to hide their ineffectiveness in dealing with
the problem. It is political suicide
these days to tell people to ‘say no to drugs.’
It is to one’s political advantage ot say that the user is not
responsible. “You are a victim. You would not be an addict if not for the
predations of wealthy American businesses.”
The DEA has not been effective in stopping the drug trade.
The best they can come up with is a strategy of squeezing businesses with deep
pockets. The intimidation of McKesson
has led to a $150 million dollar
settlement because it’s cheaper to pay the invoice than to be dragged through
years of litigation by DEA bureaucrats. Such
settlements serve publicity objectives and also makes a good bit of change. But
such tactics are cowardly.
The only thing this 60 Minutes segment got right was that
McKesson is the 5th largest corporation in the country with about 75,000 employees.
