The U.S. Department of Justice took three major actions Aug. 22 to combat the opioid epidemic as part of a crackdown prompted by President Donald Trump.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the actions during a speech in Cleveland, noting all individuals targeted in the department's crackdown are innocent until proven guilty.
Here are the three actions:
1. The Justice Department filed temporary restraining orders against two Ohio physicians who allegedly overprescribed opioids. The restraining orders prohibit thephysicians from prescribing medications and represent the department's first ever civil injunction under the Control Substances Act against physicians allegedly prescribing opioids illegally. The physicians were identified with help from the department's newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force.
2. Mr. Sessions also announced a 43-count indictment against two Chinese residents who allegedly manufactured and shipped about 250 types of synthetic opioids and fentanyl to at least 25 countries and 37 states in the U.S. The indictment also alleges the drugs imported from China caused two fatal overdoses in Akron, Ohio.
3. In a joint operation with other agencies, the Justice Department targeted individuals and organizations selling fentanyl or other drugs on the dark net. Numerous arrests, charges and guilty pleas resulted from the federal operation. Among those arrested were a husband and wife in Ohio, who allegedly ran the most prolific dark net fentanyl vendor site in the U.S., called MH4Life.
"Today's announcements are a warning to every trafficker, every crooked doctor or pharmacist, and every drug company, every chairman and foreign national and company that puts greed before the lives and health of the American people: this Justice Department will use civil and criminal penalties alike and we will find you, put you in jail, or make you pay," Mr. Sessions said.