New data from a DEA database tracking pharmaceutical opiate distribution is suggesting a link to Cardinal Health, and Utah senate leader, Evan Vickers, in the recent opiate epidemic. The Washington Post made public new information that shows that during 2006-2012 Cardinal Health supplied 10.7 billion opiate pills. This equates to roughly 14 percent of the national total, per Medium.
Drug companies, the DEA, and the Justice Department were challenging the release of this information in court since 2016 when it was initially requested. Recently a judge took away the protective order and let the information from the ARCOS database reach the public. This database tracks every pharmaceutical opiate pill that anyone orders, delivers, or prescribes. The key players in question reside in the anti-cannabis state of Utah. This could explain the crippling over-saturation of pills killing residents of rural America.
Interestingly, Utah state senate majority leader Evan Vickers is handling a lot of the opiate distribution. Vickers is a pharmacist by trade, and has been an extremely vocal opponent to medical cannabis in Utah since the first attempts to pass a safe access law in 2015.
This man led multiple efforts to subvert medical cannabis in following years until Proposition 2 came up during the 2018 election. During which time he was at the helm of a contentious political battle in conjunction with Marty Stephens, lobbyist for the Church of Latter-day Saints, and the Marijuana Policy Project. It’s also worth mentioning that the LDS church had around $15 million of Cardinal Health shares during this whole endeavor. This guy doesn’t like cannabis and it’s flagrantly clear.
Who Is Cardinal Health?
Cardinal Health is the top distributor to several family-owned pharmacies owned by Vickers. For example, 34 percent of Iron County’s opiates are distributed through two Vickers’ pharmacies. This accounts for more than proportionately bigger businesses such as Wal-Mart. Township Pharmacy aka Bulloch Drug, and E J C F LLC could be the source of a serious drug epidemic. This region in particular has also been experiencing an insane amount of heroin overdoses.
All of this begs the question of the legitimacy behind restrictions on recreational and medical cannabis in rural America. Is it really for the betterment of the people? Or is someone and/or something turning a huge profit while further poisoning America with pills?
