Washington • The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office that regulates pharmaceutical opioids told senators Tuesday that a 2016 law has made enforcement more difficult in urgent circumstances and should be revised.
Demetra Ashley, who leads the agency’s Diversion Control Division, said it is up to Congress to decide whether to repeal or amend the law. But she said the DEA agrees with the Justice Department that it should be altered to help curb the ongoing opioid epidemic.
Since the law was passed, Ashley said, DEA investigators have had a greater burden of showing that a company’s conduct poses an immediate danger of death or harm in order to shut down shipments of painkillers from a distributor to a pharmacy.