Myths and misconceptions surrounding DEA regulation

During their lecture, Top 10 Veterinary DEA Violations, at the 2024 Fetch Kansas City conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Kelley Detweiler and Peter Weinstein, DVM, MBA, shared with the audience some common mistakes veterinary professionals make when it comes to DEA regulations. Throughout the lecture, the duo took turns sharing what the misconceptions are and what exactly the DEA protocol is for each.

In an exclusive interview with dvm360 following their lecture, Detweiler and Weinstein shared the multiple fallacies involving DEA regulations within veterinary practice that they mentioned in their lecture to help give professionals a better understanding of what they are doing right with DEA regulations, and what they potentially could be doing wrong.

Below is a partial transcript.

Kelley Detweiler: Peter, I am doing relief work, and, you know, I have a DEA registration in Missouri, where we're at, but I'm going over to Kansas, and it's fine if I can use a prescription pad at that facility, right?

Peter Weinstein, DVM, MBA: If you're going from Kansas to Missouri, which could be a matter of feet, and you're going to be practicing veterinary medicine there, and you do not have a DEA license in Missouri, no, you cannot. And if you do not have a DEA license at all, you cannot use somebody else's prescription pad. No DEA license—the only thing you can do is administer medications from another doctor's inventory at a hospital you are working. You cannot dispense, you cannot prescribe, and you cannot order.

Detweiler: Okay, so this is very annoying, all this record keeping stuff. So let me ask you a question. Our hospital is purchased by a consolidator, and we do an annual inventory; it is so pristine, it's very copious. Can't that substitute in for my DEA biennial inventory?

Weinstein: Your annual inventory cannot substitute in for your DEA biennial inventory. But if you can do a DEA biennial inventory, you can use that one each time, because essentially, you're keeping things up to date. You have to use the DEA biennial inventory form upon which to keep track of your DEA biennial inventory. I love the fact that you're doing an annual inventory for your company, but it doesn't necessarily meet the requirements that the DEA would have.