It was a somewhat unsettling year for the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Agency faced a barrage of criticism in the press regarding its involvement in passage of the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act (EPAEDEA), which some criticized as hobbling DEA’s immediate suspension …
Federal law continues to prohibit the possession, cultivation or distribution of marijuana and prohibits operating a business for these purposes. A number of states continue to follow Federal law and prohibit the use of marijuana under any circumstance, but a growing majority of other states …
Obscured last week amidst the tumultuous passage of tax reform, Congress urged the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) in a bipartisan letter to quickly update its regulations and guidance on the partial filling of schedule II controlled substance prescriptions. The letter notes that “[l]arge amounts of …
The Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), in response to the nationwide controlled pharmaceutical diversion and abuse crisis, now conducts more frequent regulatory inspections in greater depth to identify registrants who violate the Controlled Substances Act and implementing regulations. In addition to inspecting and auditing manufacturers, distributors, …
“For Americans under the age of 50, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death.” DOJ, Attorney General Jeff Sessions Delivers Remarks Announcing New Tools to Combat the Opioid Crisis (Nov. 29, 2017) (here). “With evidence suggesting that nearly 80 percent of individuals addicted …
The American Conference Institute’s Legal, Regulatory, & Compliance Forum on Controlled Substances is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C. from January 29-31, 2018. Esteemed, top-notch faculty speaking at the conference include current and former officials from the DEA and FDA, representatives from State Attorney General …
You may be a doctor, dentist, veterinarian, pharmacy, wholesale distributor, or manufacturer, and you just received an Order to Show Cause from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). An Order to Show Cause can have a significant impact on your ability to handle controlled substances and, …
The American Conference Institute’s Legal, Regulatory, & Compliance Forum on Controlled Substances is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C. from January 29-31, 2018. Esteemed, top-notch faculty speaking at the conference include current and former officials from the DEA and FDA, representatives from State Attorney General …
There is a long history and established precedent in Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) administrative cases in the use of summary dispositions (i.e., determination without a hearing) related to the loss of state licensing authority (e.g., state medical or controlled substance license) (see our previous post …
On July 11, 2017, the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) announced that Mallinckrodt LLC, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, agreed to pay $35 million to settle allegations related to the adequacy of its efforts to detect and inform DEA of suspicious orders of …
Individual practitioners represent more than ninety percent of the approximately 1.6 million DEA registrants. We believe it fair to say that of all the types of DEA registrants (e.g., manufacturers, distributors, importers, etc.), individual practitioners have less opportunity to read the Federal Register for notices …
Numerous prior DEA final orders have been based on a summary disposition. Summary disposition is a procedure used by government counsel to seek a recommended decision by the Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) to revoke a DEA registration without proceeding to a hearing on the facts. …
On April 17, 2013, Dr. David A. Moon was held up at a TSA checkpoint at a Las Vegas airport. Law enforcement officers stopped the physician—the holder of DEA registrations in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Las Vegas, Nevada—carrying an unregistered firearm, and found in his carry-on …
The scourge of opioid addiction has received considerable attention for some time, and now legislation is proposed to address the overuse of addictive prescription opioids: Senate bill 892, the Opioid Addiction Prevention Act of 2017. The proposed legislation defines conditions of acute pain and tells …
Over the years, there have been a number of DEA administrative actions against physicians based on a recurrent theme of trading sex for drugs. Also, every prosecutor knows that these themes of sex, drugs, and rock and roll make for a lively case before a …
