Huntington Herald-Dispatch – A retired high-ranking official for the Drug Enforcement Administration testified in Charleston on Monday that distributors accused of fueling the region’s opioid crisis were on alert they needed to rein in their distribution practices as early as 2005. Read the full article.
The distributors responded by bombarding the DEA with reports of their sales without indicating if they were suspicious or what the DEA should be investigating regarding the reports, said Joe Rannazzisi, head of the Office of Diversion Control for the DEA from 2006 to 2015.
Cabell County and the City of Huntington accuse the “Big Three” drug wholesalers — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — sent excessive shipments of opioids into the area for eight years, before a reduction in the number of pills shipped made users turn to illicit drugs.
