On January 6th 2017, Greg interviewed Lenny Bernstein, a journalist for the Washington Post. Lenny discussed the force behind the opioid epidemic ravaging rural American communities. During his investigation, his team discovered that multiple drug distribution companies were giving rural pharmacies far more pills than they could possibly sell or store. But how could this happen unchecked? “As we dug into these cases,” Lenny explained, “we found that the DEA, their own employees, state boards and pharmacies had warned them… It was very obvious that [the companies] had to know, because these emails were going up to their headquarters.”
On Sunday October 15th 2017, 60 Minutes released a joint broadcast with the Washington Post, where they interviewed former DEA agent Joe Rannazzisi. In the interview, Rannazzisi revisits Bernstein’s initial finds, revealing the behind the scenes battle between the DEA, Congress, and large pharmaceutical distributors that’s enabled the opioid epidemic to continue sweeping the nation.
In light of this, we are re-releasing our Cover2 Podcast with Lenny Bernstein. We hope you enjoy.