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   >If they OD and kill themselves, there won't be a drug problem.   
      
   Free drugs?   Sounds like the Trump White House!   
      
    White House clinic handed out medications with little oversight during   
    past administrations, new investigation shows   
   By Brenda Goodman, CNN   
      
   Updated 4:58 PM EST, Wed January 24, 2024   
      
      
   During previous presidential administrations, the White House Medical   
   Unit   
   operated a pharmacy where staff members freely distributed prescription   
   and non-prescription drugs – including controlled substances – without   
   adequate record-keeping and sometimes to people who weren’t legally   
   eligible to get them, according to a report released this month.   
      
   The report – from the independent Office of the Inspector General of the   
   US Department of Defense, which oversees the Military Health System and   
   thus the White House Medical Unit – says the clinic also misused taxpayer   
   funds by dispensing brand-name drugs instead of less expensive generics   
   and providing free medical care to staff who weren’t allowed to get it.   
      
   The Office of the Inspector General said in a news release that the   
   problems it uncovered in the White House clinic were “severe and   
   systemic.”   
      
   The report is based on reviews of records from the White House Medical   
   Unit, including prescriptions, from between 2017 and 2019. In addition,   
   investigators interviewed more than 120 officials, including hospital   
   administrators, military medical providers and pharmacists. The office   
   also reviewed the transcripts of 70 previous interviews with former   
   members of the White House Military Office who served there between 2009   
   and 2018.   
      
      
   Related article With menthol cigarette ban still uncertain, American Lung   
   Association calls for White House to act ‘swiftly’ to save lives   
      
   The interviews indicated that medication was often dispensed without any   
   written records. Before “we would get ready for a big overseas trip,”   
   staffers were directed to make “prepacks” that consisted of plastic   
   sandwich bags containing the sleeping drug Ambien as well as the   
   stimulant   
   Provigil, which is meant to help people stay awake. Both are categorized   
   as controlled substances, meaning they require special handling and   
   record-keeping by pharmacies because they carry a risk for dependence and   
   abuse.   
      
   These prepacks would often be handed out to senior staff or their   
   assistants without any record of who was ultimately getting them, the   
   testimony said.   
      
   The directive to give medication, “including all controlled substances,”   
   to patients’ representatives “without the need to present the patient’s   
   ID   
   card” was also found by investigators on a handwritten note dated March   
   21, 2014.   
      
   In one case, according to the excerpted testimony, a doctor in the   
   medical   
   unit asked a staffer if they could “hook up” someone with some Provigil   
   “as a parting gift for leaving the White House.” Sloppy records and no   
   oversight, among other problems   
      
   The report, published January 8, found that the “White House Medical   
   Unit’s controlled substance records did not accurately reflect the unit’s   
   procurement, inventory, or disposal of controlled substances.”   
      
   The report says the practices it documents did not comply with guidance   
   from the government or the Department of Defense. Rather, it says, the   
   problems occurred because officials in the medical unit “did not consider   
   their operations to be a pharmacy,” despite the fact that the medications   
   were kept and dispensed behind a door marked “pharmacy” and that   
   medications were handed out in pill bottles that bore the logo of the   
   White House Medical Unit.   
      
   However, there was no pharmacist on staff at the medical unit, although   
   officials said controlled substance audits are performed quarterly,   
   according to the report. Staff members testified that they submitted a   
   request to get a pharmacy technician assigned to the White House, but it   
   still had not been filled during the period of the investigation.   
      
   The unit’s lax prescribing practices were allowed to go unchecked because   
   the office lacked oversight, according to the report. None of the senior   
   Military Health System leaders interviewed for the report could identify   
   which division was responsible for the medical office. Complaints lead to   
   a second inquiry   
      
   The investigation was launched after the Defense Department received   
   complaints that a senior military medical officer assigned to the unit   
   had   
   “engaged in improper medical practice,” the report says.   
      
   In May 2018, the Office of the Inspector General began a separate inquiry   
   into complaints about Dr. Ronny Jackson, who had previously served as   
   physician to the president and head of the White House Medical Unit.   
   TOPSHOT - US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin looks on during a joint   
   press conference with Israel's defence minister, in Tel Aviv on December   
   18, 2023. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP) (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP   
   via Getty Images)   
      
   Related article Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asked to testify before   
   lawmakers about his failure to notify leaders of his hospitalization   
      
   Several of the complaints alleged improper medical and pharmaceutical   
   practices as well as problems with Jackson’s behavior. They also called   
   into question the eligibility of some patients to be seen at the   
   executive   
   medical facilities in the National Capital Region.   
      
   Jackson, who is not named in the new report, was director of the White   
   House Medical Unit from 2010 through 2014 and served as physician to the   
   president for both Barack Obama and Donald Trump.   
      
   He stepped back from his role as physician to the president in March   
   2018,   
   after Trump nominated him to helm the Department of Veterans Affairs. But   
   he withdrew from consideration for that role after the Senate Committee   
   on   
   Veterans’ Affairs interviewed 23 current and former colleges of Jackson’s   
   who alleged that he led a hostile work environment and allowed   
   overprescribing of medications.   
      
   He was named chief medical adviser to the president in February 2019.   
      
   Asked whether he participated in the activities described in the report   
   or   
   was aware of them, a spokesperson for Jackson – who is now serving in   
   Congress as a representative from Texas – noted in a statement that “Dr.   
   Jackson was not the Director of the White House Medical Unit during the   
   timeframe mentioned in the report (2017-2019). He was Physician to the   
   President and later Chief Medical Advisor. The Chief Medical Advisor is a   
   policy role, not clinical. This healthcare policy role had no association   
   or involvement with the White House Medical Unit’s clinical delivery of   
   care.”   
      
      
   According to a review of the clinic’s medical records detailed in the   
   report, staffers dispensed brand-name medications instead of   
      
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