Transcript: DEA Administrator Anne Milgram on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” August 18, 2024

Below is a transcript of an interview with DEA ​​Administrator Anne Milgram on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” which aired on August 18, 2024.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Fentanyl and other so-called synthetic opioids are the leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States, according to the CDC. But in light of the recent death of actor Matthew Perry from an overdose of ketamine, a controlled substance that can be used in clinical and therapeutic settings, there are also growing concerns about the abuse of the drug. Joining us now to discuss all of this is Anne Milgram, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. She’s in New York this morning. Welcome back, Administrator.

ADMIN ANNE MILGRAM: Thank you for having me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve had these arrests this week, as we’ve mentioned, ketamine is an anesthetic, but it can sometimes be used to treat depression. When you announced these charges, you said this was a case where substance abuse started in a doctor’s office and then ended up on the street. How prevalent is ketamine abuse now?

ADMINISTRATOR ANNE MILGRAM: That’s right. Margaret, so in the case of Matthew Perry’s death, we have filed charges against the five individuals that we believe are responsible for that death. And again, what happened there was it started with two unscrupulous doctors who really — we charged — violated their oath, which is to care for their patients, and instead supplied Matthew Perry with massive amounts of ketamine in exchange for massive amounts of money. And then it moved to the streets where Matthew — where Matthew Perry purchased the ketamine from two drug dealers on the streets of Los Angeles. And so this is, unfortunately, a tragic (unintelligible) that we’ve seen as we think back to the opioids — the beginning of the opioid epidemic, where many Americans became addicted to controlled substances in doctors’ offices and through medical practitioners that then led to street addiction as well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, right on that note, it sounds a little bit like the beginning of the opioid crisis, we were talking about pill mills. Now you see ketamine clinics popping up claiming to be a treatment for depression and other things. Should they be more regulated? How do you get that under control?

ADMINISTRATOR ANNE MILGRAM: So one of the things that’s important to recognize is that ketamine is a controlled substance, and it is, it is, it has great potential, obviously, for addiction and other challenges. The FDA regulates the medical prescribing of ketamine, and so they’ve approved it as an anesthetic. They’ve approved it as a nasal spray for the treatment of depression. And so they regulate the medical side of this. At the DEA, we’re targeting physicians, nurse practitioners, anyone who is essentially diverting legitimate controlled substances from the normal practice of medicine to do what we saw happen here, where physicians, these physicians, were not evaluating Matthew Perry, they were not supervising injections. They were leaving vials of ketamine for Matthew Perry to be injected by his assistant. And so we turn our attention back to the controlled substances side, but we focus every day on and investigate physicians, nurse practitioners, and others who violate this duty of trust to their patients by overprescribing medications or prescribing medications that are not necessary. And here we have alleged again that these physicians were demanding a huge payout from Matthew Perry. They were charging him about $50,000 over the course of a month to supply ketamine.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Fentanyl is also used in medical settings, but it’s also the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, according to the DEA. That’s a staggering statistic. We’ve heard a lot about this during the campaign. We’ve heard President Biden talk about sanctions on Chinese entities, about indicting Mexican cartels that do business with Chinese groups, and yet we’re still hearing about high rates of overdoses from fentanyl. Why is it so hard to address?

ADMINISTRATOR ANNE MILGRAM: So Margaret, you’re right when you point out that in 2022, we lost 107,941 American lives to fentanyl and methamphetamine. And this is a tragic, tragic situation that we’re facing, where fentanyl is rife in every community in the United States, from coast to coast and everywhere in between. And what we’re seeing is that the cost to produce fentanyl for the two cartels in Mexico that are responsible, the Sinaloa and the Jalisco cartels, is pennies, and so this is the cheapest drug that we’ve ever dealt with. And the only limit to the amount of drug that can be made is the chemicals that are sourced by the cartels from China and essentially the production, which again costs pennies for these two cartels to make. So we’re fighting what I would argue is the greatest narcotics threat that we’ve ever faced, and at the DEA, we’re focused on saving American lives. And one of the most important ways we do that is by working across their entire network. Both cartels operate in over 50 countries around the world, and we’re targeting every part of that global supply chain, from the Chinese chemical companies and Chinese nationals that we indicted last year and this year, to the Mexican cartel leaders, manufacturers, to the people who are selling drugs on behalf of the cartels in the United States, and then the money launderers who are working for the cartels. In 2023, we’ll have taken action across that entire network. We’ll do the same in 2024, and so we have a strategic plan. We’re working to break these networks apart, and we’re starting to see progress, but there’s a lot more work to be done, because how addictive is fentanyl, how small amounts can kill someone. And for the first time, the cartels are hiding fentanyl in other drugs. They’re making them look like real prescription drugs, all containing fentanyl and filler. And so this is just a dramatically changed landscape that we’ve now turned around to address and look straight in the eye. And every day we’re fighting to save lives by taking down those two cartels and stopping fentanyl.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Mexico, the president of Mexico has said he’s not going to fight the Mexican drug cartels. His slogan is hugs, not bullets. The new president who’s going to be sworn in on October 1st has said she’s going to follow the policies of her predecessor. That’s going to be a big problem for your enforcement, isn’t it?

ADMINISTRATOR ANNE MILGRAM: So we have to work together around the world to stop this threat, to stop Americans from dying, and so we are focusing again on the fact that we have filed a number of criminal charges in China. We also started since November of last year, when President Biden met with President Xi, and we have started having conversations again. We have re-engaged with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. We recently took on a case in Los Angeles where we had contact — we actually demonstrated that a Chinese money laundering organization was working directly with the Sinaloa Cartel. They made one arrest in China and they made one arrest in Mexico. It is that kind of cooperation that will help us have an impact and stop this threat.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Administrator Milgram, we’re monitoring your progress. We’ll be right back.