Cuff 'em and stuff 'em
08/01/2001
Mark A. DeSorbo
Associate Editor
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Get pinched for dealing dope and you're in a world of hurt—jail time, forfeiture of property and a criminal record that follows you until the day you die.
But if you produce pharmaceuticals, it seems you can break the law, ignore warnings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for years, carrying on, business as usual, all the while having your hand held by the agency all the way down the road to compliance.
Something is severely wrong with this picture because it's not likely that you'd ever see the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) treat a heroin dealer with kid gloves. Nor would the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) coddle food processors that blatantly disregard food safety regulations.
The FDA is extremely lenient compared to other branches of the government, which tend to throw the book at criminals and those who break laws that are in place to ensure public safety.
Case in point: USDA inspectors recently suspended operations at four meatpacking companies in New York City, until such gross violations as rodent infestation and food contamination were rectified.
The no-tolerance-for-noncompliance message is clear: Screw up and we'll shut you down. And it's time to throw that same book at bureaucratic pharmaceutical misfits.
Why should Abbott Labs or Schering-Plough be allowed to continue to do business, making millions, when they have continually failed to comply with federal regulations that are in place to protect the very people they profit from?
An illegal drug dealer in a neighborhood is a problem, no doubt, but so is a pharmaceutical manufacturer that sells medicines to the masses on its own accord by breaking the law.
When an illegal drug-dealing ring is nabbed, they are pinched by the cops, muscled into submission, cuffed, stuffed and charged. Felonious pharmaceutical companies, to a certain degree, should get the same treatment.
After all, is there really a difference between the hoodlum selling crack on the corner and a drug maker who violates federal regulations and produces medicines of questionable efficacy and safety?