U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials played a little game of “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” last week when they threatened to strip Morris & Dickson Co. of its license to ship opioid painkillers. The move came only two days after an Associated Press investigation uncovered the DEA allowed the company to keep shipping drugs for nearly four years after a judge recommended the harshest penalty for its “cavalier disregard” of rules aimed at preventing opioid abuse.

While Morris & Dickson could be put out of business (and perhaps rightly so), the DEA should face harsh scrutiny for its four-year failure to enforce those same rules. In fact, even after those four years, the DEA is giving Morris & Dickson yet another 90 days to work on offering a settlement.

“Morris & Dickson is grateful to the DEA administrator for delaying the effective date of the order to allow time to settle these old issues,” the company said. “… Business will continue as usual and orders will continue to go out on time.”

Business will continue as usual.

Meanwhile, DEA officials have admitted they took “longer than typical for the agency” to crack down on this particular offender. But they place the blame fully on the company, which claimed it accepted “full responsibility” for its past actions.

“Its acceptance of responsibility did not prove that it or its principals understand the full extent of their wrongdoing … and the potential harm it caused,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.

So the DEA knows the company caused harm, in fact may not agree what it did was wrong, and that it plans to continue doing business as usual. One wonders when the DEA will accept full responsibility for having allowed the company to avoid the punishment Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson endured. Back in 2019, Administrative Law Judge Charles W. Dorman said anything less than the most severe punishment “would communicate to DEA registrants that despite their transgressions, no matter how egregious, they will get a mere slap on the wrist and a second chance so long as they acknowledge their sins and vow to sin no more.”

For four years, the DEA didn’t even slap, and the agency has told Morris & Dickson it has another 90 days to make an offer.

Should the DEA’s failure to do its job result in other distributors believing they can get away with bending a rule or two, the inaction could cause harm to patients. The DEA is supposed be helping us fight against such crimes, not giving the criminals as much breathing room as possible. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland must keep a close eye on DEA officials. Should action be warranted, he must move much more quickly than they have.