Boeing

Federal Misdemeanor Drug Charges Have Outsized Impact On Ex-Boeing Workers

Ryan J. Reilly | March 2, 2012, 6:14AM

Last fall, a four-year long federal undercover investigation aimed at cracking down on illegal prescription drug dealing at a Boeing plant producing American military hardware came to dramatic end.

Federal authorities arrested more than three dozen people on Sept. 29, most of them at the Boeing facility in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia; some for alleged distribution of prescription painkillers like Oxycontin and fentanyl, and some for attempted purchase.

A total of 36 defendants are facing a combined maximum of 1,791 years in prison and $88.25 million in fines.

But it's the alleged attempted purchasers, 14 in all charged with federal misdemeanor drug possession, facing a maximum one year in prison, that force unsettling questions about the case.

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Topics: Boeing, Justice Department, Prescription Drugs

Health Care

Did White House Pressure FDA To Help Kill Measure To Make Drugs Cheaper?

Justin Elliott | December 18, 2009, 3:08PM

After the Food and Drug Administration fired off a letter that helped kill a measure fiercely opposed by the drug industry, one Democratic senator is accusing the Obama White House of using the FDA -- which is supposed to offer apolitical opinions -- as a bludgeon.

The drug importation amendment to the health reform bill, which would have saved the government and consumers billions of dollars by allowing prescription purchases from Canada and elsewhere, was killed in the Senate late Tuesday with an assist from the FDA letter. The 51-48 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Byron Dorgan, FDA, Frank Lautenberg, Health Care, Margaret Hamburg, Meghan Scott, Obama Administration, Prescription Drugs, Sam Brownback, Tom Carper