It appears that the DEA looked the other way as one of the nation's largest wholesale drug distributors continued to ship highly addictive painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended it be stripped of its license for its "cavalier disregard" of thousands of suspicious orders fueling the opioid crisis.
"Acceptance of responsibility and evidence of remediation are not get-out-of-jail-free cards that erase the harm caused by years of cavalier disregard," federal Administrative Law Judge Charles W. Dorman wrote, referring to Shreveport-based drug distributor Morris & Dickson. "Allowing the respondent to keep its registration would tell distributors that it is acceptable to take a relaxed approach to DEA regulations until they are caught, at which point they only need to throw millions …