The silence is deafening. Big Pharma won, & the Sackler family won.
Win for Pain Patients as SCOTUS Cuts DEA’s Power to Persecute Prescribers
On June 27, the United States Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the government cannot rightfully prosecute prescribers for violating the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) unless it can demonstrate that the violation was committed knowingly or intentionally. Coming just days after the rollback of Roe v. Wade, the Ruan v. United States decision represents a significant curtailing of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) oversight—and a victory for chronic pain patients and everyone who prescribes or receives controlled substances.
It has been “easier to convict a doctor of a federal felony and send them to prison for the rest of their lives than it is to win a medical malpractice case or action at the state board,” Jennifer Oliva, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings, told Filter. “That’s flipping the law on its head.”
“Under the way this statute was being interpreted, the government can put on some expert [and ask], ‘Do most doctors do this?’ and the expert says ‘No’ … Now you’re going to federal prison.”
Threatening controlled substance prescribers with incarceration has reduced neither drug use nor overdose. Rather, restricting access to regulated opioids has only pushed people toward the adulterated unregulated supply, increasing overdose risks and deaths.
https://filtermag.org/supreme-court-pain-dea/