Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture or distribute highly
addictive pain pills have hired dozens of officials from the top
levels of the Drug Enforcement Administration during the past
decade, according to a Washington Post investigation. The hires
came after the DEA launched an aggressive campaign to curb a rising
opioid epidemic that has resulted in thousands of overdose deaths
each year. In 2005, the DEA began to crack down on companies that
were distributing inordinate numbers of pills such as oxycodone to
pain-management clinics and pharmacies around the country.
Since then, the pharmaceutical companies and law firms that
represent them have hired at least 42 officials from the DEA - 31 of
them directly from the division responsible for regulating the
industry, according to work histories compiled by The Washington
Post and interviews with current and former agency officials.
The number of hires has prompted some current and former
government officials to question whether the companies raided the
division to hire away DEA officials who were architects of the
agency's enforcement campaign or were most responsible for enforcing
the laws the firms were accused of violating.
"The number of employees recruited from that division points to a
deliberate strategy by the pharmaceutical industry to hire people
who are the biggest headaches for them, said John Carnevale, former
director of planning for the White House's Office of National Drug
Control Policy, who now runs a consulting firm. "These people
understand how DEA operates, the culture around diversion and DEA's
goals, and they can advise their clients how to stay within the
guidelines.
The DEA's Diversion Control Division, tasked with preventing
prescription drugs from reaching the black market, wields enormous
power within the pharmaceutical world. The small division, with
about 300 employees at its Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, can
suspend or revoke the licenses of doctors, pharmacies and
pharmaceutical companies that fail to comply with federal law.
From 2000 to 2015, nearly 180,000 people have died of overdoses
from prescription painkillers in what public health authorities have
called an epidemic. States including Massachusetts, and most
recently Virginia, have declared public health emergencies as the
number of deaths has escalated.
It is not unusual for corporations to hire federal employees
directly away from the government. Their expertise and inside
knowledge can be invaluable, but there are laws and regulations to
slow the "revolving door in Washington and prevent potential
conflicts of interest.
The restrictions include a lifetime ban on participating
"personally and substantially on a "particular matter that the
official had handled while working for the federal government. There
also is a two-year ban on switching sides on a wider array of
matters that were in the employee's official purview. State bar
associations impose additional post-employment restrictions for
government lawyers.
An industry spokesman said former DEA diversion officials are
hired for their expertise.
"Our industry is highly specialized, and the function of drug
diversion experts even more so, said John M. Gray, president and
chief executive of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, which
represents drug distributors. "As such, for these individuals who
want to continue to grow in their areas of expertise, it is logical
for them to pursue government and industry roles that are closely
aligned with their professional experience.
While The Post did not find evidence that the officials violated
conflict-of-interest regulations, the number of hires from one key
division shows how an industry can potentially blunt a government
agency's aggressive attempts at enforcement.
The DEA diversion officials who have gone to the industry since
2005 include two executive assistants who managed day-to-day
operations; the deputy director of the division; the deputy chief of
operations; two chiefs of policy; a deputy chief of policy; the
chief of investigations; and two associate chief counsels in charge
of legal affairs and enforcement actions against pharmaceutical
companies. …
