Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that a new task force would target drug manufacturers and distributors for their roles in the opioid epidemic, raising the possibility of filing criminal charges against them. And the new secretary of health and human services, Alex Azar, has embraced the expansion of medically assisted drug treatment. Over-prescription and the uncontrolled supply of pills are widely blamed for the start of the nation’s opioid epidemic. (George Frey/Reuters)John M. Gray, president and chief executive of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, which represents drug distributors, said in a statement Tuesday that “distributors share the common goal with Attorney General Sessions of ending this opioid epidemic. But many experts, including the president’s commission on the opioid crisis, have called for a much wider range of responses and vastly more money to combat the crisis.

Source: Washington Post February 27, 2018 19:23 UTC