Solomon Adu-Beniako v. Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs

First Question. The United States is in the throes of a public health crisis arising from the abuse of opioids. Opioids are addictive, prone to abuse, and readily available in illegal forms, such as heroin and synthetic fentanyl. At the same time, the federal government's Health and Human Services Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force has determined that tens of millions of Americans rely on legal prescription opioids to treat acute or severe chronic pain, including pain arising from cancer as well as terminal or degenerative illnesses. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) long ago approved opioid medications for these purposes, and doctors throughout the country lawfully prescribe them. Congress tasked DOJ and its sub-agency DEA with primary responsibility for preventing drug abuse. With respect to illegal opioids—the chief cause of opioid overdose deaths—DEA's and DOJ's duty is to keep those drugs off the streets and to find and punish the criminals who push them. Through the CSA, Congress similarly entrusted DEA with the responsibility for regulating legal opioids. DEA is responsible for enforcing the CSA in a way that preserves legitimate patients' access to pain-relief medications prescribed by their doctors while preventing diversion, misuse, and abuse. As such, Congress has charged DEA with regulating every step in the opioid supply chain. Watchdog agencies have meticulously catalogued, however, myriad ways in which DEA has failed to safeguard the public from improper diversion of prescription opioids. In the shadow of their own profound failures, DOJ and DEA now seek to retroactively impose on physicians unworkable requirements that are not found in any law and go beyond what physicians are trained and licensed to perform- to investigate and arrest criminals. The first question presented is: Does the Respondent's unfairly tasking, and blaming the Petitioner for the DOJ/DEA responsibility violate the Petitioner's Constitutional rights ?