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."

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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."

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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.

Eastman then "proceeded to write his own policy" for the procurement, storage and disposal of Schedule II narcotics, the whistleblowers alleged, after staff questioned the lack of such a policy. His first draft of the policy "initially omitted language regarding the storage and disposal of the narcotics." Eastman also allegedly removed language that mirrored existing policies from the Drug Enforcement Administration, then signed the policy. Eastman failed to send the policy to senior leadership for approval, despite warnings that not doing so could be illegal, the report said.

With the self-signed policy, Eastman then allegedly ordered staff to order the fentanyl lollipops. However, the fentanyl lollipops could not be secured because a vendor could not be found in time, the whistleblowers said.

The report said that Eastman has previously been investigated by the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility for the improper ordering and procurement of narcotics, as well as illegally storing those narcotics with a friend. That friend, a paramedic and pilot, would have been the helicopter pilot during Eastman's trip to New York City, the report said.