By WENDY HOLDREN
The Register-Herald
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Congressman Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., introduced legislation Thursday to re-empower the Drug Enforcement Administration to go after irresponsible drug distributors.
The legislation would repeal the provisions of the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act that have hampered the DEA’s efforts to stop the delivery of opioids and other medications to suspicious distributors.
This is the companion bill to legislation introduced Monday in the Senate by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Margaret Wood Hassan, D-N.H.
“I do not want to have the DEA hamstrung,” Jenkins said during media availability Thursday in Beckley. “Let’s not handcuff the DEA from doing what they need to do to make sure that we stop suspicious, illegal rogue shipments of pills into our state.”
He said after what West Virginia has lived through during the opioid epidemic, “We’ve got to do everything possible to try to stop this.”
The bill is also sponsored by Reps. Annie Kuster, D-N.H.; Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.; and Tim Ryan, D-Ohio.