Pharma’s Puerto Rico problems could mean drug shortages: FDA chief

Bristol-Myers said it has resumed limited operations to ship warehoused products. “As of today, no product supply impact is expected, however we continue to assess the challenging operational conditions on the island,” spokesman Ken Dominski said. Gottlieb said he was “troubleshooting for individual companies” on a daily basis and working with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to address issues such a fuel shortages and shipping problems that could stall operations. The FBI, with its field office in San Juan, along with the Department of Homeland Security, and the DEA have multiple task forces working on the illegal drug trade in Puerto Rico.

“A lot of companies say they’re online, but they basically have one of five lines running at 20 percent or 80 percent or 50 percent,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told Reuters in an interview in New York. It is cheap and easy to buy and deal to the public in housing projects in Puerto Rico, leading to the second highest homicide rates in the United States or its territories. New gangs like La ONU and Rompe ONU are also prominent in Puerto https://rehabliving.net/ Rico. In 2001, CBP confiscated 205 kilos of marijuana at airports throughout Puerto Rico. In 2002, a resident of San Juan was arrested at the airport, when government officials found 12.7 kilograms of marijuana hidden in his luggage. In 1996, a group of researchers from Puerto Rico’s Mental Health and Anti Addiction Services Administration, published the results of a study involving 849 out-of-treatment drug users in the San Juan area.

Sign up free to receive our email newsletter:

The opioid dispensing rate is high – over 43 prescriptions per 100 people in 2020. This Puerto Rico state page provides you with a quick overview of issues relating to drug and alcohol addiction, Puerto Rico drug abuse statistics, and PR drug rehab centers. He said he and other doctors received anonymous tips that criminals were threatening hospital staff with violence or even death if they did not hand over fentanyl supplies. Not only does Puerto Rico have a drug problem, especially suffering opiate or opioid abuse, but America sees high overdose rates every year. If you or a loved one is seeking opiate addiction treatment, then our addiction treatment facilities can help you recover.

• He said the agency was working with drugmakers and would consider approving manufacturing sites in other countries, such as Mexico, Canada or Ireland, to alleviate possible shortages if companies have plants there.
• Not only does Puerto Rico have a drug problem, especially suffering opiate or opioid abuse, but America sees high overdose rates every year.
• At times, however, the DEA and the Puerto Rican police have struggled to work together and some commentators have questioned the effectiveness of government drug policy.
• This occurred in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, the place where the drug dealers distributed their drugs to many places in Puerto Rico.

According to the Department of Justice, 17.9% of drug-related federal sentences in Puerto Rico were heroin related. The Puerto Rican Police Department reported that in 2001, 63% of the 744 murders on the island were drug related. 14.3% of Hispanic Puerto Ricans and 17.7% of other Hispanics in Puerto Rico entered substance abuse treatment for marijuana abuse.

Pharma’s Puerto Rico problems could mean drug shortages in US

The opioid crisis killed some 48,000 Americans in 2017, with 5,400 fatal drug overdoses alone reported in Pennsylvania, the highest of any state. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says fentanyl was responsible for the highest percentage of fatal overdoses in 2016, followed by heroin and cocaine. Puerto Rico does have a drug problem, and the most abused drugs include opiates, marijuana, and alcohol. Unfortunately, many do not seek marijuana or alcohol addiction treatment, and the island is sometimes referred to as “opioid Rico” due to the number of opiates and synthetic drugs sold and misused.

According to data, the estimated number of addicts nearly surpasses 70,000, and almost $3 million is spent per day on illicit drugs.1 For a small island, these are insanely high and dangerous numbers. In 2001, one of the biggest police corruption busts in U.S. history took place in Puerto Rico, when 28 state police officers in Puerto Rico were arrested for drug-running charges. The yearlong undercover operation was initiated by the FBI, after authorities got a tip about the police possibly being involved in drug dealing, and protecting cocaine dealers and shipments and movement throughout the island. Between 1993 and 2000, 1,000 police officers in Puerto Rico lost their jobs from the department due to criminal charges. Police corruption in Puerto Rico stems from the fact that police officers make small wages and are so close to the cocaine trafficking. All of these benefits are found in the Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.

In 2013, the agency documented nearly 32,000 pounds of narcotics, but last year’s growth indicates transnational criminal organizations are pushing harder than ever to get their goods to the U.S. Sign up now to get the Washington Examiner’s breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox. WHYY offers a voice to those not heard, a platform to share everyone’s stories, a foundation to empower early and lifelong learners and a trusted space for unbiased news. Between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic end of Hispaniola lies the Mona Passage, an 80-mile wide shipping channel that is an important component part of the shipping lanes between the Atlantic Ocean and the Panama Canal. Amgen, in a statement, said it was “preparing to resume manufacturing in various plants over the next several weeks” and did not anticipate an impact on supply to patients.

A federal court filing made Tuesday in Cleveland lays out the details of the settlements with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and distribution companies. Heroin in Puerto Rico comes into the country through South America and then is moved into the United States. Columbia and the Dominican Republic drug groups are the primary transporters of heroin through Puerto Rico. In 1998, government reports indicated that there were two state run treatment facilities, three not for profit, 35 not for profit faith based programs, and 6 for profit treatment facilities.

Newsletters

Police captured a sniper in late 2011, the sniper had a Dragunov Caliber Sniper Rifle and was arrested with 5 other drug dealers. In early 2012, two assassinations occurred in Humacao involving the Carteli. In addition to locally produced fentanyl, authorities say a less-controlled version of the drug is now being smuggled in from China and India, then mixed with heroin, and to a lesser degree cocaine and marijuana. Officials reported a cluster of fatal overdoses in the western coastal town of Mayaguez, followed by more overdoses at a nearby prison in the northwest town of Aguadilla. From there, activists say, the use of illegal fentanyl and other opioids has spread to all major cities, including the capital. Back in 2010, the FBI conducted one of its biggest police corruption probes in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico.

However, the efforts have been hampered by corruption within the local police force, plagued by accusations of graft for years. Most of the drugs on the U.S. mainland come from South America. Drugs are transported by speedboats and fishing vessels, which usually travel from Colombia and Venezuela and make a stop in the Dominican Republic. There, drugs are collected and transported to other destinations, including Puerto Rico.

An opioid epidemic in the United States, one part of an escalating drug problem. And a U.S. territory not afforded the rights of statehood, but suffering the consequences of its status as a commonwealth and America’s addiction to drugs. On the day of her death, her father injected himself with heroin and fell asleep. He was arrested on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in April 2022.

Puerto Rico a growing hub for cocaine, heroin shipments to the US

But the drug doesn’t just travel out of the island; it also stays inside affecting residents every year. Thousands of people wake up everyday to the reality of having to maintain an addiction, to some of the most dangerous substances. Since the late 1980s, Puerto Rico has been a transport hub for South American drugs to the United States.

This Mexican Chef Has News For You: Margaritas And Tres Leches Aren’t Mexican

He said the agency was working with drugmakers to consider approving manufacturing sites in other countries, such as Mexico, Canada or Ireland, to alleviate possible shortages if companies have plants there. Opioids, often prescribed by doctors, are the main driver of the surge in overdose deaths. In 2020, nearly 75 percent of overdose deaths involved the drugs, according to the CDC.

In 2010 police captured 16 drug dealer “clans” that had the same information and they worked together to defeat opposing dealers. They also started to “clean house” in 2010, when they killed about 44 men attached to some drug dealers or those that were compromising the dealer. In 2011 the death toll was 1,266 at one point, due to many big drug arrests different gangs went into war with each other for the control of drugs in the island. In 2011 it was discovered that many of the killings were to cover up some corrupt politicians. Also in Bayamon, a major city of Puerto Rico, many drug cartels started to defend their dealers by getting snipers and attackers on rooftops. “Sikarios” would be put on the rooftops to defend their drug turf in different housing projects due to wars against rival gangs that would try to take over the drug turf.

Since the addict is still dependent, he or she does not learn how to recover the brightness and joy that accompany a fully drug-free life. He does not have a course of treatment that teaches him the life skills that keep him sober and productive. She does not undergo a thorough detoxification that helps soothe the body’s craving for drugs. To some degree or another, most of the islands in the Caribbean serve the South American drug traffickers who wish to get their products into the United States or over to Europe. Puerto Rico has several airports and major shipping ports that move thousands of cargo containers each year.

We offer unique programs like cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR therapy, and pet therapy. We understand addiction is different for everyone, but there is always recovery if you seek professional care and desire to maintain sobriety to live a fulfilled life. It’s estimated that in Puerto Rico, approximately 70,000 people are addicts and that $3 million per day is spent on illicit drugs. The cost to the Puerto Rican and U.S. governments exceeds $600 million per year. Treatment for opiate addiction, the most common type of addiction, often takes the form of methadone or Suboxone substitution treatment – a treatment that leaves addicts dependent on a daily dose of an opioid.

“Prosecutors charge Puerto Rican police with corruption.” Miami Herald 23 August 2007. “FBI arrests 4 Puerto Rican police for corruption.” EFE World News Service 19 December 2008. The participants will be ordered to appear before Justice Department officials and have their cell phones inspected, eco sober house ma department spokeswoman Mariana Cobian said. When Hurricane Maria struck, Puerto Rico was still trying recover from Hurricane Irma, which had pummeled the island just two weeks earlier. As the economy gets worse, more Puerto Ricans leave, and the government has less tax money to pay its debts.

Neta is the most violent gang in Puerto Rico, commonly involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion, and murder. “We’ve found traces of fentanyl in cocaine and heroin, and identified that heroin is being mixed with fentanyl here,” said Frank Aquino Ruiz, director of El Punto en la Montaña, a non-governmental organization. However, commingled with cocaine on shipments is heroin, which is eco sober house price widely consumed and available in most drug points, and increasingly fentanyl is being mixed with the drugs before being transported to the U.S. mainland. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is often added to other drugs to make them cheaper but more powerful. It’s almost impossible for users to know their drugs are laced with fentanyl, which greatly increase the risk of overdose, before it’s too late.