Orrin Hatch: “the Washington Post article discusses virtually none of this. Rather, it baldly asserts that Congress cut out DEA's legs…”

“the Washington Post article discusses virtually none of this. Rather, it baldly asserts that Congress cut out DEA's legs from underneath it through a sinister conspiracy of deep- pocketed drug companies and their cunning allies in Congress. Nothing could be further from the truth. To begin with, I have spent 40 years of my life in the Senate fighting the scourge of drug abuse. I stood side by side with Ronald Reagan in the War on Drugs. In 2000, I coauthored the Drug Addiction Treatment Act, or DATA 2000, one of the first efforts in Congress to address the opioid epidemic. Last year, I led conference negotiations on the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act, a landmark piece of legislation that is making a real difference in the fight against opioid and heroin abuse. Currently, I am working on legislation to address opioid addiction in the veteran community. I am no patsy when it comes to drug abuse--prescription or otherwise--and neither are my colleagues. Indeed, forget me for a moment. Let's take Senator Whitehouse, who helped me negotiate the bill with DEA and DOJ. Are we to believe that Senator Whitehouse, a former Rhode Island attorney general and a former U.S. attorney, a crusader against corporate interests, is somehow in the pocket of the drug companies? Of course not. The charge is laughable on its face. How about the fact that this bill passed both Houses of Congress by unanimous consent? Did the entire U.S.…”