SEATTLE - DEA reprises this weekend one of its most popular community programs: National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. On Saturday October 22 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the public can dispose of their unused, unwanted prescription medications at one of 156 collection sites in the Pacific Northwest, operated...

SAN DIEGO - America is presently experiencing an epidemic of addiction, overdose and death due to abuse of prescription drugs, particularly opioid painkillers. 6.4 million Americans age 12 and over-2.4 percent of the population-abuse prescription drugs, according to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health released last month...

BOISE, Idaho - Brian Weaver Cluff, 44, of Meridian, Idaho, was sentenced on October 12, 2016, in United States District Court to 322 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime. U.S. District Judge Stanley A. Bastian from the...

PORTLAND, Ore. - On Wednesday, September 21, 2016, the Drug Enforcement (DEA) will join leaders from federal, state and local law enforcement and public health agencies in “Taking Stock,” a roundtable discussion examining Oregon’s prescription opioid and heroin epidemic. DEA in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau...

BOISE, Idaho - Michael Minas, 50, of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced on September 8, 2016, to eight years in federal prison on 80 counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose. Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge...

SAN DIEGO - Physician Naga Raja Thota, a pain specialist with an office in El Cajon, was arrested this morning and charged with distributing oxycodone and other highly addictive drugs without any legitimate medical purpose in exchange for sex acts. The doctor was taken into custody by San Diego Drug...

PORTLAND, Ore. - A federal grand jury sitting in Portland, Oregon returned a 39-count indictment against Julie Ann Demille, 58, of Clackamas, Oregon, a nurse practitioner licensed in Oregon, Osasuyi Kenneth Idumwonyi, 55, of Spring, Texas, her office manager, and a total of 17 other co-conspirator defendants in a case...

SPOKANE, Wash. - Domingo (a.k.a. Junior), 28, of Pasco, Washington, was sentenced on July 20, 2016, to a life term in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of murder in connection with a drug-trafficking conspiracy. Senior United States District Judge W. Fremming Nielsen also imposed two 30-year terms...

EUGENE, Ore. - Nicholas Jacobson and his twin brother Matthew Jacobson, 30, of Jackson County Oregon, were sentenced to prison on Wednesday, July 20, 2016, by U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken for conspiracy to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin. Nicholas Jacobson was sentenced to 97 months in prison...

PORTLAND, Ore. - Todd Alan Nelson, 51, of Salem, Oregon, was sentenced on July 12, 2016, to a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison for possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, followed by a consecutive five-year mandatory minimum sentence for possession of a firearm during and in relation...