Trump's Nomination of Tom Marino for Drug Czar is a Disservice to America

Rep. Marino withdrew his name back in May for the same position.

Photo: Whitehouse.gov

(MYRTLE BEACH, SC) - President Donald Trump has announced that he intends to nominate Rep. Tom Marino (R) of Pennsylvania to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy -- second time for nomination.

Marino has been a longtime supporter of the president -- so much so that Trump nominated Marino back in the spring for the same position -- drug czar. Marino withdrew his name in May because of "family issues."

I have written over the years about the colorful background of Rep. Marino and links to these articles are shown below.

My concerns with Marino were related to Bill HR 4709 "Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2014" introduced by Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, TN and Congressman Tom Marino. I wrote about Blackburn and Marino and the fact that the bill would tie the hands of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Congressman Tom Marino wanted a provision to make sure that "law-abiding pharmacists aren’t swept up in efforts to bust the pill mills that sometimes consist of licensed pharmacies and doctors’ offices selling prescription painkillers illegally."

Consider if a pharmacy made a serious mistake with an opioid prescription, the offending pharmacy would not be sanctioned by the DEA. Rather it would only have to provide a remedy to the mistake in writing.

Sound like a plan for every state in the country drowning in a prescription opioid epidemic? It does to Mr. Marino.

My article in 2014 concerning the Blackburn and Marino bill was written because it sparked my interest. We were fighting a huge prescription opioid health crisis and Bill HR 4709 tied the hands of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) big time.

Mark Trouville, DEA special agent in charge of the Miami Field Division was quoted as saying "All DEA licensees have an obligation to ensure that medications are getting into the hands of legitimate patients. When they choose to look the other way, patients suffer and drug dealers prosper."

When my articles regarding Tom Marino were published in Global News Centre and Salem-News.com, a congressional aide/press secretary to Marino advised that he was going to "use congressional resources" to investigate not only me, but my newspaper editors.

Unfortunately Congressman Marino did not explain the meaning of "abuse of power" to his congressional aide/press secretary. The facts in my article were researched and were accurate.

As an assist to President Trump in his careless appointment of Marino as drug czar, he may need to consider some background history of a less than sterling public servant. In 2011, Congressman Marino introduced a bill that would exempt particular pharmacies from anti-trust laws. Five weeks later, the NCPA (a powerful pharmaceutical association) and ten of its member corporations began contributing a total of $47,500 to Marino’s campaign committee.

A majority (56%) of Marino’s contributions can be tied to groups that either benefit directly from legislation the Congressman has authored or that regularly lobby on issues that come before the subcommittees Marino sits on.

In 2007, Congressman Marino resigned from his position as a U.S. Attorney in Pennsylvania after a Department of Justice investigation was launched against him for giving a reference to a convicted felon to operate slot machines.

Marino claimed he had written permission from the Justice Department to issue the reference — the Justice Department confirmed Marino was being less than truthful. Marino resigned as U.S. Attorney and the internal probe against him was dropped by the Justice Department. He then took a position with the convicted felon earning $250,000 a year — until he was elected to Congress.

President Trump has been quoted as saying he is going to "drain the swamp" in Washington, DC. He may need to expand the swamp draining to apply to Tom Marino. Hopefully Mr. Trump will not allow the "alligator" with financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry to become "drug czar" while Marino thumbs his nose at the DEA and the families throughout the country suffering the loss of loved ones to an out of control prescription opioid/heroin epidemic.

LINKS:

• www.globalnewscentre.com/congressman-tom-marino-pa-and-congresswoman-marsha-blackburn
• www.globalnewscentre.com/president-elect-trump-and-the-troublesome-members
• www.salem-news.com/articles/september232012/pill-deaths

The Marino history: http://www.globalnewscentre.com/congressman-tom-marino-pa-and-congresswoman-marsha-blackburn-tn-prescribe-walgreens-be-unaccountable-for-errors-in-loss-of-lives-why/#sthash.Z6IC2RPb.G4xqS4VL.dpbs

LP - Magic acts, Yogi Bear, Poet Laureate and Mr. Green Jeans along with faith, laughter, peace and love. I pinch myself every day.