DEA Did Surprise Inspections at Several NFL Stadiums Today Looking for Controlled Substance Violations
By Jason Lisk
The Drug Enforcement Administration has conducted several surprise inspections at NFL stadiums today, according to an Outside the Lines report.
The inspections were primarily aimed at visiting teams, as San Francisco (in New York) and Tampa Bay (in Washington) were two of the teams identified. The issue is whether those, and other, teams, are properly distributing pain medications and other drugs within the purview of their authority, or exceeding it.
“DEA agents are currently interviewing NFL team doctors in several locations as part of an ongoing investigation into potential violations of the Controlled Substances Act,” DEA spokesperson Rusty Payne said Sunday.
The investigations are tied to a lawsuit from May, where former players alleged that NFL teams pushed medications improperly and gave them medications without proper warnings.
This investigation is not via warrants and is not expected to lead to arrests today. It is administrative, but the DEA is checking to see if doctors are properly logging specifically who drugs are being administered to, and inspecting the medical bags of visiting teams to see what was administered.