CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey reacted Tuesday to a report regarding the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s response to the opioid crisis.
The Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report the DEA was “slow to respond” to the epidemic, and failed to come up with a strategy to address the issue. Other decisions noted in the report include increasing the annual quota for manufacturing oxycodone by nearly 400% between 2002 and 2013.
Morrisey sued the DEA in 2017 over the quotas and worked with the Trump administration to create rules setting quotas on medical need.
“The reality is the DEA grossly mismanaged its charge to protect American lives,” Morrisey said in a video. “It focused on industry want rather than medical need.”
According to Morrisey, the 2020 limits include decreasing hydrocodone manufacturing by 19% and oxycodone production by 8.8% over one year.
“I’m pleased that we’re moving in a good direction but, boy, we had some tough times in the past from 2002 to 2017,” he added.