DEA Revokes License of Opioid Distributor After Years of Failure to Curtail Abuse

Morris & Dickson Co. has had its license to sell highly addictive painkillers revoked by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration due to its failure to flag thousands of suspicious orders during the opioid crisis.
The DEA allowed the company to continue shipping drugs for nearly four years after a judge recommended the harshest penalty for its "cavalier disregard" of rules aimed at preventing opioid abuse.
Morris & Dickson shipped 12,000 unusually large orders of opioids to pharmacies and hospitals between 2014 and 2018, filing just three suspicious order reports with the DEA.
The order becomes effective in 90 days, allowing more time to negotiate a settlement.
Morris & Dickson's much larger competitors, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson, have already agreed to pay the federal government more than $1 billion in fines and penalties to settle similar violations.