Opioid shippers and Trump Justice Dept trying to block release of Rx painkiller data

[Tanuki]

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/health/opioid-shippers-justice-dept-oppose-release-of-prescription-painkiller-numbers/article_613690fe-7681-5255-b133-cfd2ad816e46.html

"The U.S. Justice Department, Drug Enforcement Administration and the nation’s largest drug distributors are objecting to a West Virginia newspaper chain’s request for federal records that show prescription opioid shipments to every pharmacy in the state.

The Justice Department filed a motion this week in federal court, seeking to block the Cabell County Commission from releasing the opioid sales data to HD Media, which owns the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Herald-Dispatch and other newspapers across Southern West Virginia. HD Media requested the opioid information from the Cabell commission in a public records request last week.



Justice Department lawyers have asked U.S District Judge Dan Polster to issue an order that would prohibit the release of the opioid numbers. The government’s motion — signed by lawyers with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Northern Ohio — argues that the prescription opioid sales information could be used for “press stories, commercial advantage or even illegal drug trafficking.”

In a separate filing, drug wholesalers McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, Miami-Luken and H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Co. joined the federal government’s objection to the release of opioid sales data.

.......

Between 2007 and 2012, drug wholesalers shipped nearly 40 million doses of hydrocodone (sold under brand names such as Lortab) and oxycodone (OxyContin) to pharmacies in Cabell County, according to DEA data obtained by the Gazette-Mail in 2016.

The oversupply of prescription painkillers has been widely blamed for starting and fueling the opioid epidemic, which claimed more than 930 lives in West Virginia last year."...(more at link)

[exboyfil]

1. Press stories?

Isn't that what the press is supposed to do? How can the public make an informed decision on the merits of current US prescription drug policy without that information?

[Tanuki]

2. That caught my eye, too. Sometimes they slip and give away the game entirely.

[Dave Starsky]

3. I know. WTF?

God forbid that anything involving the public be subject to the sunlight provided by a free press.