White House Medical Unit's Mass Order of Fentanyl Raises Questions

Orders of significant quantities of drugs such as fentanyl by the White House Medical Unit under the Trump administration have led to questions as to why it procured the controlled substances and what they were intended for.

In the first nine months of 2019, the medical unit—which is responsible for tending to the medical needs of the White House staff—made four separate orders of fentanyl, two orders of morphine and a further two of ketamine. In total, it received 34 packs of fentanyl over the period, records show.

The disclosure came in a scathing report by the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, released earlier this month, ­­which gave the findings of an investigation which began in 2018 that came after complaints were raised about an unnamed senior military medical officer engaging in "improper medical practices."

The probe concluded that the White House Medical Unit's pharmacy operations had "severe and systemic problems" without oversight, and dispensed prescription medications to ineligible White House staff.

The Inspector General made a series of recommendations to improve administrative scrutiny of the unit, which the Pentagon agreed with.

Around a hundred times more potent than morphine, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid which is used in a medical setting for pain relief and as an anaesthetic. Morphine and ketamine are also used as sedatives, but all three are controlled due to their illicit use.

Fentanyl has increasingly become the leading driver of America's opioid epidemic, with illicit supply thought to be smuggled over the border, prompting calls from Democrats and former President Donald Trump for tighter controls.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), fentanyl is responsible for more than 70 percent of drug overdose deaths among U.S. adults aged 18 to 45.

As the White House Medical Unit offers day-to-day care for the president, vice president, their families and staffers, the procurement of the sedatives, including fentanyl, has raised eyebrows.

"This was just a clinic, and didn't do any major procedures which required even moderate sedation," Brian Krassenstein, an internet personality and commentator, wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Saturday that has since been viewed 3.2 million times. "The real White House drug story wasn't the cocaine found under [President Joe] Biden but the Fentanyl, Morphine, or Ketamine prescribed under Trump."

"No wonder America's fentanyl problem exploded while Trump was in office!" Grant Stern, the executive editor of Occupy Democrats, said in a post on Sunday, since viewed over 280,000 times. "His 'doctor' was ordering PLENTY of it for the White House."

"For a clinic that doesn't typically do procedures [with] moderate sedation they sure are ordering prodigious quantities of morphine, fentanyl, versed, & ketamine," Nick Mark, a medical doctor based in Seattle, Washington wrote.

Newsweek approached the Trump campaign via email for comment on Monday.

The Inspector General report found that in the White House Medical Unit, drugs including opioids and sleep medications "were not properly accounted for" and that prescribers "wrote prescriptions for controlled substances that often lacked the medical provider and patient information mandated by DEA policy."

It also questioned why the unit routinely ordered branded drugs instead of their generic equivalents that were around half the price.

The report did not name any individuals working at the White House Medical Unit at the time and did not apportion blame for the issues it uncovered.

Newsweek reached out to Rep. Ronny Jackson, the president's physician between 2013 and 2018, and Sean Conley, his successor who served until Biden was inaugurated in 2021, via email for comment on Monday.