Customs and Border Protection's top doctor tried to order fentanyl lollipops for helicopter trip to U.N
The chief medical officer for the Customs and Border Protection agency repeatedly asked staff members to order fentanyl lollipops for him to take on a helicopter mission to the United Nations in New York City in Sept. 2023, according to a whistleblower report by the Government Accountability Project.
The report was shared with Congress on Friday morning, and stated that Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alexander Eastman allegedly “spent copious hours of his and Office of the Chief Medical Officer staff time directing the OCMO staff to urgently help him procure fentanyl lollipops, a Schedule II narcotic, so that he could bring them on the CBP Air and Marine Operations helicopter on which he would be a passenger in New York City.”
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and painkiller driving the overdose crisis in the United States. Fentanyl lollipops are an oral version of the drug, and are used to treat pain, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Chief among the Customs and Border Protection’s duties as a federal agency is stopping the flow of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, into the United States over international borders.
When asked why he would need fentanyl lollipops to travel to the United Nations’ General Assembly meeting, Eastman allegedly argued that the lollipops would be necessary for pain management in case of an emergency, and were “necessary” in case a CBP operator was injured, or if the Air and Marine Operations team encountered a “patient in need.”
Over half a dozen CBP employees were involved in the “urgent” requests to purchase the fentanyl lollipops, the whistleblowers said, with senior leadership in the office reporting concerns about the process in emails. Eastman’s attempts to order the lollipops were unsuccessful because there was not funding available, the whistleblowers said.
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