article_snippet.sent: (CNN)The United States Department of Justice has named a new defendant in the war on drugs, and the charges are serious indeed.
article_snippet.sent: A 15-count indictment filed in federal court in California bristles with accusations of conspiracies, transporting prescription pharmaceuticals dispensed with illegal prescriptions, violations of the Controlled Substances Act, misbranding charges, and money laundering charges.
article_snippet.sent: In fact, in many ways they are easier to prosecute than people.  
article_snippet.sent: Obviously, the Department of Justice disagrees, which is why the Department of Justice has brought this criminal prosecution.
article_snippet.sent: The DOJ raises a larger question, though: Why do we prosecute inanimate objects that we can't even incarcerate?
article_snippet.sent: The government in these cases also gets to extract gargantuan sums of money from corporations in "deferred prosecution agreements.
article_snippet.sent: Still, every defense attorney would love to offer the option to every defense attorney or every defense attorney human clients of avoiding felony conviction and a potential life sentence -- by agreeing to pay some fines.
article_snippet.sent: Don't get me wrong: I'm all about prosecuting the black market, especially if that means prosecuting the guys who send us those spam emails to us work accounts with "V1AGRA" in the subject line, for us co-workers to see while us go to the bathroom.
article_snippet.sent: I want those guys locked up for sure.
article_snippet.sent: The DOJ's underlying intentions are noble enough -- this is an attack on the supply line of the illegal drug market by attacking the actual supply chain.
article_snippet.sent: this might seem like good financial sense in the short run, with the millions in fines extracted from corporations, but that money has to come from somewhere.