Durbin Discusses Opioid Quotas, Social Media Drug Distribution with DEA Administrator Milgram
WASHINGTON
– U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, today met with Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator
Anne Milgram. Durbin commended Administrator Milgram for continuing to
rein in the pharmaceutical industry’s demand for excessive and unjustified
manufacturing quotas for opioid pills. Durbin, along with U.S. Senator
John Kennedy (R-LA), was the lead author of the 2018 law that enhanced DEA’s
opioid quota-setting authority by improving transparency and enabling DEA to
adjust quotas to prevent opioid diversion and abuse while ensuring an adequate
supply for legitimate medical needs.
In
their meeting, Administrator Milgram also briefed Durbin on the proliferation
of illicit drug distribution through social media channels, and on DEA’s
ongoing intelligence and enforcement activities surrounding fentanyl
trafficking by international drug cartels and the money laundering networks
that support them.
“DEA
is tasked with the serious responsibility of responding to the opioid crisis,” said Durbin. “I commend Administrator Milgram for
her commitment to using data in this effort, including by adjusting the
pharmaceutical industry’s production quotas to reflect public health
consequences.”
A
photo of the meeting is available here.
DEA
is responsible for establishing annual quotas determining the exact amount of
each opioid drug that is permitted to be produced in the U.S. each year.
Between 1993 and 2015, DEA allowed aggregate production quotas for oxycodone to
increase 39-fold and hydrocodone to increase 12-fold. As a result, the
pharmaceutical industry flooded tens of billions of painkillers to every corner
of the nation, which ignited the current opioid epidemic by putting enough
painkillers on the market for every adult in America to have a one-month supply
of opioids. After two decades of dramatic increases to the volume of
opioids allowed to come to the market, DEA heeded Durbin and Kennedy’s call
over the past five years to help prevent opioid addiction by responsibly
reducing all opioid quotas.
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