California Opioid Policy Summit

The 2nd Annual California Opioid Policy Summit was held in San Diego, California, hosted by the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of California.  Acting US Attorney Sandra R. Brown moderated a panel titled “Law Enforcement: Effective Use of Cutting Edge Analytics and Innovative Partnerships to Investigate Drug Diversion and Bad Actors.”  The panelists included AUSA Benjamin Barron as well as San Diego Deputy AUSA Mark Conover, and US Attorney Phil Talbert, from the Eastern District of California, who presented on tools and strategies in targeting corrupt pharmacies engaged in opioid diversion and related health care fraud.  The panel further addressed a range of other topics, including trends in the illicit sale of synthetic opioids and the DOJ’s recent creation of the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit.