After yearslong delay, DEA revokes license of wholesale drug distributor over opioid crisis failures

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has stripped one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors of its license to sell highly addictive painkillers after determining it failed to flag thousands of suspicious, high-volume orders at the height of the opioid crisis. The revocation order against Morris & Dickson Co. that threatens to put the Louisiana-based company out of business came two days after an Associated Press investigation found the DEA allowed the company to keep shipping drugs for nearly four years after a judge recommended the harshest punishment for its “cavalier disregard” of rules aimed at preventing opioid abuse.