COMMENTARY: Hoosier politicians take thousands from pharma companies

The Eighth District congressman was in the area this week meeting with Vanderburgh County’s Substance Abuse Council and touting a drug take-back initiative at Walgreen’s. Last year, he sponsored a bill meant to widen treatment options for those battling addiction.

But according to campaign finance records, he also received thousands of dollars from a company accused of perpetuating the very problem Bucshon’s trying to curb.

Bucshon’s office didn’t respond to several requests for comment.

McKesson is one of the biggest pharmaceutical distribution companies in the world. It pulled in $198.5 billion in revenue last year, making it the fifth-largest corporation in the country. 

It also flooded overdose-stricken counties in West Virginia with millions upon millions of prescription painkillers.

Charleston Gazette-Mail reporter Eric Eyre – who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the opioid epidemic – unleashed a massive report in December in which he obtained drug shipping sales records the Drug Enforcement Administration sent to the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office. In them, McKesson is shown shoving mountains of Lortab and Vicodin into counties with the highest overdose rates in the U.S.

The situation in Mingo County was especially egregious. I’ll quote Eyre: “McKesson saturated Mingo County with more hydrocodone pills in one year — 3.3 million — than it supplied over five other consecutive years combined.”

Mingo County's population as of 2016 was a shade more than 24,500. That leaves about 134 pills per person. 

West Virginia experiences more opioid overdose deaths than any other state – by far. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the state saw 36 fatal overdoses per 100,000 people in 2015. The runner-up was New Hampshire, with 31.

Indiana, by comparison, had about 8.

The drug companies the Gazette-Mail talked to blamed the flood of illicit painkillers on doctors who over-prescribe.

McKesson was one of several drug companies mentioned in a giant Washington Post / 60 Minutes expose over the weekend that chronicled the drug industry’s apparent attempt to undermine the power of the DEA, which fined McKesson $13.2 million in 2007. 

The report had a big impact on Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino – a major pusher of the offending law: the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act. Days after the article came out, he removed himself from contention to be the next drug czar.

You can’t pin Ensuring Patient Access on one company or political party, though. It was a bipartisan, multi-pronged effort that sailed through both houses unanimously. President Obama signed it into law. 

The same goes for McKesson’s political donations. During the 2016 campaign, it gave money to Indiana politicians from both parties, including Susan Brooks ($10,000) and Evan Bayh ($2,700). Sen. Todd Young received $9,000. He's also pushed bills to slow the opioid problem.

Weirdly, McKesson tossed a whole $10 to Lynn Coleman, a Democrat who launched a failed bid for the 2nd Congressional seat.

Conversely, its biggest recipient was Hillary Clinton, who gobbled up $51,000. She's talked a big game about battling rampant opioid use as well.

There’s so much money swirling around politics that it’s hard to know what individual donations mean. In Bucshon’s case, I highly doubt $7,500 had any impact on his legislative goals. After all, he raised $978,000 in 2015-16.

But if you’re serious about curbing an opioid epidemic partially sparked by churning pill mills – which Bucshon is – taking cash from major pharmaceutical distributors isn’t a good look.

I hope he avoids taking any money from McKesson or other drug manufacturers during the 2018 cycle.