Strike Force Tests Relevance of a Trump-Era Bid to Fight Opioids

In 2018, the Justice Department launched a strike force to combat opioid overdoses throughout Appalachia by charging excessive prescribers as drug dealers.

Nearly six years later, the Trump-era initiative lives on while the surrounding public health crisis is evolving from the doctor’s office to the streets. Opioid prescriptions have steadily declined, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, and black-market fentanyl has overtaken medically dispensed painkillers on law enforcement’s priority list.

The Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid strike force did its part by successfully targeting egregious conduct, including at pill mills where practitioners exchanged OxyContin and other scheduled ...