Letter to the Hon. Jeff Sessions, United States Attorney General - Booker Criticizes Sessions for Misguided Shift in Justice Department Resources

Letter

Dear Attorney General Sessions:

I am writing to you to express deep concern with the Department of Justice's (DOJ) plans to hire as many as twenty Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) prosecutors by cutting funding from a program that works to prevent controlled substances like prescription drugs from entering the black market. We ask you to reconsider this unprecedented move that will not make our communities safer nor help combat the opioid use and heroin abuse epidemic. Rather, ramping up enforcement efforts at the expense of resources targeted for drug diversion programs, will only reinvigorate the failed War on Drugs and drastically increase the federal prison population.

On March 21, 2017, the DEA published a notice in the federal register of its intention to hire twenty prosecutors to prioritize new drug trafficking, money laundering, and asset forfeiture cases. According to a DEA spokesman, the purpose of the proposal is to fight a growing opioid abuse problem. We appreciate the agency's acknowledgement of this critical public health problem, and we share the same goal. As you know, 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day, making opioid abuse and addiction one of the most devastating epidemics in our nation. However, the DEA's purported rationale for hiring twenty prosecutors is baffling considering it is taking away funds from a critical drug diversion program.

To fund the hiring of twenty prosecutors, the DEA is proposing to divert funds from the Diversion Control Fee Account, which is used to fund the agency's Diversion Control Program (DCP). The DCP's mission is to "prevent, detect, and investigate the redirection from legitimate channels of controlled pharmaceuticals . . . ."[1] To carry out its mission, the DCP conducts investigations, works with entities that handle controlled substances to reduce the risk of pharmaceutical product diversion, and monitors the distribution of controlled substances, among other activities. These activities are integral to efforts to combat our nation's opioid epidemic, as diverted drugs have played a significant role in this public health crisis.

Under current law, the DCP must be fully funded through the Diversion Control Fee Account.

Therefore, through this notice, it would appear you are advocating for the DEA to redirect vital resources from a program that is designed to ensure that prescription drugs are not used and sold illicitly. This effort is a thinly veiled attempt to ramp up the failed War on Drugs and prosecute more nonviolent low-level offenders. Additionally, never before in the 40-plus year history of the DEA has it had its own prosecutors. The DEA is charged with combatting drug smuggling in the United States. Its authorizing statute says nothing about prosecuting cases.

I believe we share the goal of providing resources to those suffering from addiction, eradicating the drug supply chain, and targeting drug traffickers. But history has shown that misguided arrests and harsh sentencing requirements drive mass incarceration and perpetuate disparate impacts across our country. I urge you to reconsider this proposal.

Sincerely,
Cory A. Booker
United States Senator

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