Drug wholesalers’ testimony under oath reeks of perjury

We’re no echo chamber for any public official.
That includes U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., who represents our own 1st House District.
Make no mistake, this is no endorsement of McKinley in November’s election.
However, we would be remiss if we ignored his “fury” in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s grilling of drug distributors last week.
He and other House members put on an uncommon display of bipartisan wrath aimed at top executives of major drug wholesalers for their role in the opioid epidemic.
However, McKinley in particular, not only because he represents the state where the most damage was done but also due to his anger, made some headlines.
He publicly shamed four of the five executives who denied their or their companies’ actions contributed to the opioid epidemic — under oath.
Then he went on to suggest aside from financial penalties “… should there be time (in prison) spent for participation in this?”
As McKinley pointed out, these distributors failed to forward suspicious order reports to our state’s pharmacy board for more than a decade.
Clearly, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) did next to nothing to oversee these massive shipments of opioids to West Virginia.
Massive, as in shipping more than 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia from 2007-’12. Massive, as in terms of distributing 20.8 million opioid pills in a 10-year period to Williamson, population 2,900.
And a pharmacy in Kermit, population maybe 400, ranked 22nd in the nation in the number of hydrocodone pills it received in 2006.
But here’s where we’re not just going to express outrage at putting the profit motive ahead of people’s lives.
Undoubtedly, there has been plenty of public discourse on the meaning of lying lately.
What better time for charging with perjury these four executives who, under oath, answered “No” to any responsibility for the opioid epidemic.
Despite the DEA’s incompetence, doctors prescribing opioids and pharmacies filling prescriptions, these drug wholesalers are more complicit in this crisis than anyone.
How could anyone ignore 780 million red flags? Metropolitan areas may not receive that many opioids in a five-year period.
Though we would not oppose conspiracy charges or others against these companies’ executives, after Tuesday’s testimony, perjury seems in order.
Yes, the process will be slow and it will cost a lot of money and create some political headaches .
But for the very executives who flooded our state with opioids to deny responsibility is a bald-faced lie.
How can there not be repercussions for doing so — under oath?