Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s outrage in calling for President Donald Trump and Congress to make sure that that the nation’s Drug Czar be free of financial or other connections to the prescription drug industry is 100 percent correct.
Mayor DeMaria also is asking that Congress repeal the law that stripped the Drug Enforcement Agency of authority to bar certain companies from drug distribution.
Mayor DeMaria is rightly concerned about the epidemic of opioid addiction that has occurred not only in our community, but across the country. Mass. House Speaker Robert DeLeo further mentioned at a recent luncheon that opioid problems are not isolated to the United States, but can be seen in many foreign countries.
Today, the opioid crisis is beyond manageable, and requires major limitations on the distribution of legal opioid drugs. The lives of too many members of our communities are being snuffed out.
Mayor DeMaria is right in asking that the new Drug Czar be untethered from any drug company. For in the end, no one can serve two masters.