“We are confident we will achieve an outcome that safeguards the supply chain for all of our healthcare partners and the communities they serve.” “If DEA attempts to revoke our license for previous actions, the company will vigorously appeal and seek a stay in federal court,” it said. In a statement to AP, the company said it has invested millions of dollars in compliance systems, executives and advisors. Shreveport, Louisiana-based Morris & Dickson, the nation’s fourth-largest wholesale drug distributor with $4 billion a year in revenue and nearly 600 employees, has said losing its license would effectively shut it down and have a “catastrophic” effect on patients in 29 states. “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 of dollars at the problem to make the DEA go away.” “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,” Dorman wrote. Anything less than the most severe punishment, he said, “would communicate to DEA registrants that despite their transgressions, no matter how egregious, they will get a mere slap on the wrist and a second chance so long as they acknowledge their sins and vow to sin no more.” Dorman, Milione argued that Morris & Dickson “spared no expense” to overhaul its compliance systems, cancel suspicious orders and send daily emails to the DEA spelling out its actions.īut those efforts were too little, too late, the judge wrote in a 159-page recommendation which has not been previously reported and was recently obtained by the AP. Testifying in 2019 before federal Administrative Law Judge Charles W.

A Second Chance by Christina Paul