[20190606]LSB10307_公司贩毒责任——阿片危机中的新法律战线 .pdf

CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Corporate Drug Trafficking Liabilitya New Legal Front in the Opioid Crisis June 6, 2019 The opioid epidemic represents a public health crisis in the United States, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that overdoses on prescription and non-prescription opioids claimed a record 47,600 lives in 2017. In April 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a new front in the struggle against the illicit distribution of prescription opioids by indicting Rochester Drug Cooperative, Inc. (Rochester Drug) and two of its executives under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) based on the companys sale of oxycodone and fentanyl to pharmacies that illegally distributed the drugs. Although pharmaceutical companies and their executives have previously been subject to civil sanctions and criminal prosecution related to the marketing and distribution of opioids, the Rochester Drug indictments mark the first time DOJ has brought felony charges against a pharmaceutical company under the general drug trafficking provisions of the CSA. This Sidebar contextualizes the indictments