Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain made national news Wednesday when he was featured in an article published by Bloomberg news. The article criticized the National Sheriffs’ Association, of which Cain is an active board member, for ads published this summer asking Washington, D.C. leaders to reject proposals to import cheaper drugs from other countries.
According to Bloomberg, a New York based business media group, the National Sheriffs’ Association financed the ad blitz with “at least $900,000 in grants from the Partnership for Safe Medicines, a nonprofit that’s been funded and operated by the pharmaceutical industry’s trade association.”
Bloomberg said the National Sheriffs’ Association has been struggling financially.
“It was a lucrative arrangement for the financially strapped sheriffs’ group, which had been rejected by six banks last year as it sought to refinance its real estate assets to pay overdue bills, according to its internal records,” Bloomberg states. “The organization pocketed proceeds of at least $125,000, according to internal emails obtained through more than a dozen public record requests.”
Cain was interviewed by Bloomberg for the article, which quoted him as saying the ties with major multinational pharmaceutical companies, or Big Pharma, were concerning.
“I’ve certainly become aware of it since,” Bloomberg quotes Cain saying. “Is that a concern? Sure, it’s a concern.”
Nonetheless, Bloomberg wrote, Cain insisted that drug imports were a bad idea and says the grant money from Partnerships for Safe Medicines didn’t influence the sheriffs’ group’s position.
“The commercials are just one part of a two-year campaign that used secret payments, a widely criticized consultant’s report and even celebrity drug cops to concoct public safety arguments against drug importation and then use them to foster the appearance of widespread concern among law-enforcement groups,” the article says. “The effort and expense that the pharma-backed nonprofit put into funding the campaign reflects the industry’s devotion to preserving the U.S. market, where consumers often pay twice as much for prescription drugs as counterparts abroad and give pharmaceutical companies their single largest source of profit.”
Cain said the Bloomberg interview didn’t contain the facts he stated about the National Sheriffs’ Association’s concerns with imported drugs, including the risk of bringing more fentanyl and counterfeit prescriptions into the states.
“The article itself is concerning,” Cain said. “It said that I said, ‘It was concerning,’ but the entire article focused on financing. From my perspective, that would appear concerning, sure, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re against it.”
Cain said documentation still shows that the National Sheriffs’ Association’s concerns about imported drugs are valid.
“I’ve sat in on those Senate hearings and have been involved in a number of those discussions,” he said. “I’ve seen the reports. I’ve heard the testimony. Now, what the NSA does in terms of financial issues — that’s not anything I’m involved in.”
Cain serves as a member of the National Sheriffs’ Association’s board of director’s executive committee and chairman of the drug enforcement committee and was named the organization’s 2018 Sheriff of the Year, though he said he wasn’t aware of the extent of the National Sheriffs’ Association’s financial issues before reading the Bloomberg article.
“I wasn’t aware of the depth,” he said. “I’m not naive. I knew we worked extensively with the Partnership for Safe Medicines. As far as their connection to Big Pharma — I wasn’t aware. But it’s not the first time we’ve partnered with Big Pharma.”
In 2016, the National Sheriffs’ Association partnered with Purdue Pharma to provide greater access to naloxone, often referred to as the “rescue drug” Narcan, which revives a person during an opioid overdose. DCSO was selected as one of nine agencies across the country for the grant, training 50 DCSO employees on how to administer the drug.
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, made headlines in 2015 when it settled a legal battle with the state of Kentucky for $24 million due to OxyContin overdose deaths across the Commonwealth. Purdue Pharma eventually filed for bankruptcy after lawsuits across the country filed against them.
“[Purdue Pharma] is, in part, responsible for that problem,” he said. “They should take responsibility in helping solve the problem.”
Cain did not mention to Bloomberg or Owensboro Times plans to leave the National Sheriffs’ Association despite the accusations made against it.
