White House medical staff reportedly distributed uppers and downers like candy to Trump administration officials during the former president's time in office.
According to a new report from the Department of Defense Inspector General, "all phases of the White House Medical Unit's pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems due to the unit's reliance on ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards."
The investigation began in 2018 after the Office of Inspector General received complaints about improper medical practices within the White House Medical Unit and found a slew of compliance issues and improper safety standards.
Without oversight from qualified pharmacy staff, the White House Medical Unit made "prescribing errors," such as over‑prescribing controlled substances, that increased the risk to the health and safety of patients treated within the unit, the department said.
"White House Medical Unit medical providers offered prescription and over‑the‑counter medications to all White House staff members," the report stated. "Additionally, the White House Medical Unit provided pharmaceutical support for travelers on White House official travel. This includes the dispensing of controlled substances, such as Ambien and Provigil, without verifying the patient's identity."
One witness explained to investigators that the drugs were often divided up and packed into plastic baggies, especially before any big overseas trip.
"So we would normally make these packets of Ambien and Provigil, and a lot of times they'd be in like five tablets in a zip‑lock bag. And so traditionally, too, we would hand these out," the witness said, per the report. "But a lot of times the senior staff would come by or their staff representatives... would come by the residence clinic to pick it up. And it was very much a, 'Hey, I'm here to pick this up for Ms. X.' And the expectation was we just go ahead and pass it out."
Another witness said drugs were given to at least one White House official as a "parting gift."
"Dr. [X] asked if I could hook up this person with some Provigil as a parting gift for leaving the White House. And at the time, the corpsmen and the medics... it was okay for us to dispense Provigil and Ambien without
having a provider present," the witness said. "I'm not sure if it was okay as far as, like, what's medically allowed. But in the unit, it was authorized for us to do that kind of stuff."
The report said the unit had inadequate medication management, with workers relying on handwritten records to track the inventory of controlled substances.
"These records frequently contained errors in the medication counts,
illegible text, or crossed out text that was not appropriately annotated," the report noted.
Additionally, the report found the White House Medical Unit:
• Provided a wide range of health care and pharmaceutical services to ineligible White House staff in violation of federal law and regulation
• Dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff
• Did not follow guidelines for verifying patient eligibility
• Ineffectively used taxpayer funds by obtaining brand‑name medications instead of generic equivalents; this increased the risk for the diversion of controlled substances by not accounting for them appropriately
• Improperly disposed of controlled and non-controlled medications
"We concluded that these problems occurred because White House Medical Unit officials did not consider their operations to be a pharmacy and, therefore, relied on internal White House Medical Unit controls to ensure compliance with safety standards throughout its pharmaceutical practices. We concluded that the White House Medical Unit's internal controls were ineffective," the report stated.
The report, which offers several recommendations, is based on records and prescriptions from 2017 to 2019, as well as interviews with more than 120 officials.
"We conducted this evaluation to ensure that the practices, procedures, and controls in executive medicine facilities in the National Capital Area led to safe pharmaceutical practices," Inspector General Robert Storch said in a statement. "The recommendations in this report, if implemented, will improve and implement policies, procedures, and controls for executive medicine services and patients in the National Capital Region."