There are currently 108 open criminal investigations into government officials suspected of having stolen, ingested or intentionally hidden the location of prescription medications, according to data from the VA inspector general. Thirty-six cases have arisen since last fall alone.
"Most of those probes typically lead to criminal charges," the AP reported.
Drug tests for employees and a new brigade of inspectors were brought on to minimize pill loss and theft in February, but the efforts may not have had any real effect. "We have security protocols in place and will continue to work hard to improve it," Acting Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health Poonam Alaigh said, adding that the VA has a "zero-tolerance policy regarding drug theft."
The culprits are likely to be seasoned employees: "Older adults (aged 40 years and older) are more likely to use prescription opioids than adults aged 20 – 39," according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research.
The sheer quantity of opioid prescriptions has skyrocketed in recent years, perhaps making it easier to swipe pills off the books. In 2000, doctors issued 43 million opiate prescriptions, according to the National Institutes of Health. But last year, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said there were enough opioid prescriptions for every US adult, some 250 million people, to have “a bottle of pills and then some."
The number of cases involving missing pills at the VA has similarly jumped: incidents of lost or stolen drugs at federal hospitals increased from 272 in 2009 to 2,926 in 2015.
In February, media reports surrounding the issue spurred the government to create monitoring systems and hire more drug inventory inspectors at VA facilities. The VA operates about 160 medical centers and 1,000 clinics across the US.
"We actually need to up our game," Deputy Undersecretary for Health Carolyn Clancy told the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on oversight in February. "The use of illegal drugs by VA employees is inconsistent with the special trust placed in such employees who care for veterans," Clancy said.
