Washington • Top executives of the nation’s leading wholesale drug distributors told Congress under oath Tuesday that their companies didn’t help cause the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic, drawing bipartisan wrath that included one lawmaker suggesting prison terms for some company officials.
The confrontation came at a House subcommittee hearing at which legislators asked why huge numbers of potentially addictive prescription opioid pills had been shipped to West Virginia, among the states hardest hit by the drug crisis. Lawmakers are making an election-year push for legislation aimed at curbing a growing epidemic that saw nearly 64,000 people die last year from drug overdoses, two-thirds from opioids.