Introduction DEA Customer Service
For 22 years, I was a fee-funded employee for DEA’s Diversion Control Program. Essentially this means, if you were a DEA registrant, paid a registration fee to handle controlled substances, and received a DEA certificate of registration, you helped pay my salary. (Side note – Thank you for that.)
Overview of the Diversion Control Fee Account
- Definition: A dedicated account in the U.S. Treasury’s general fund established in 1993.
- Purpose: Collects registration and reregistration fees paid by handlers of controlled substances and List I chemicals.
- Mandate: By law, the fees must fully fund the DEA’s Diversion Control Program (DCP) without relying on general tax revenues.
What the Fund Covers
- Personnel: Salaries, benefits, and travel expenses for diversion investigators, analysts, technicians, and clerical support.
- Operations: Rent, utilities, equipment, and supplies directly tied to registering and regulating the lawful manufacturing, distribution, dispensing, importation, and exportation of controlled substances and listed chemicals.
At the Basic Diversion Investigator Training academy in Quantico, DEA’s funding was explained to us. Diversion Investigators knew early on that the funding for our program was different from that funding for Special Agents, Intel Analysts, and Chemists, which are paid by tax dollars appropriated by Congress.
The two class coordinators at Quantico also explained the Diversion Program’s Mission Statement, which is found on the DEA Diversion Control Division website:
“The mission of DEA’s Diversion Control Division is to prevent, detect, and investigate the diversion of controlled pharmaceuticals and listed chemicals from legitimate sources while ensuring an adequate and uninterrupted supply for legitimate medical, commercial, and scientific needs.”
My Thoughts on DEA Customer Service
I emphasized the last part because that was emphasized during my training, both at the academy class by our class coordinators, and by a Senior Diversion Investigator who trained and mentored me at my first duty station.
I learned that these two things can be true:
- Diversion Investigators will investigate the diversion of controlled substances outside of the closed system of distribution.
- Diversion Investigators will provide customer service to those registrants who are striving to provide an adequate supply of controlled substances for legitimate needs.
As a former teacher, the latter was right up my alley. I was happy to explain record keeping and security requirements for registrants who needed help. I was taught that since I was a fee-funded employee, registrants have an expectation of customer service because they paid a registration fee. Did I conduct criminal or civil investigations into registrants who were diverting outside the closed circle of distribution? Yes. However, the majority of my time was spent conducting administrative inspections and reviewing the requirements of the Controlled Substances Act and its implementing regulations. These administrative inspections were a necessary part of ensuring an adequate and uninterrupted supply for legitimate medical, commercial, and scientific needs. I viewed it as my contribution to helping protect and promote public health and safety. This belief is one of the reasons why I loved working in the Policy Section during the latter part of my career. I loved public service, and I loved helping registrants understand how to apply regulations in a practical way to come into compliance.
By today’s standards, this customer service concept might seem old school. Today’s regulatory environment does not seem as friendly. Clients often tell us that they find their interactions with DEA to feel adversarial. Some clients express the view that today’s Diversion Investigator is more likely than in years past to issue a Letter of Admonition, ask registrants to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement, or take record keeping violations straight to the Civil Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, before attempting any type of customer service or education of a registrant. Some clients also report that investigators have opted for civil fines without conducting a full on-site inspection. Hearing this information from clients makes me wonder if Diversion Investigators are having more limited interactions with the registrant population and, if so, whether this is actually hurting public health and safety by failing to gain a full appreciation of what the registrant is doing right, or what the registrant could do better with cooperative guidance from DEA.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not blaming today’s Diversion Investigator for this change in approach as it has been described to us. Many people, including me, left the DEA in recent years through retirement. This left a brain drain on the agency; a lot of institutional knowledge walked out the door. DEA has not been able to fully staff the Diversion Control Program in the last decade, and many positions remain unfilled through natural attrition. And many promising Diversion Investigators left the agency for the private sector, or for other government roles after working for 10-15 years, leaving a younger workforce without mentors leading the way. We have also heard that statistics are playing a role in how DEA is rating the program and its employees. Stats are earned for how many LOAs, MOAs, and Civil or Criminal sanctions are levied, creating a different metric mindset.
If they saying is true that you get more with sugar than you do with vinegar, then perhaps a better way is to create another metric that measures customer service. We did this at Headquarters in the policy section; it could be done in DEA’s field offices too. Diversion Investigators could be rated for the number of phone calls and emails they respond to. Or how many people they train or educate. The pendulum could swing back to the old school way of thinking – that with the payment of a registration fee comes a level of customer service for registrants who are ensuring that an uninterrupted supply of controlled substances is available to meet the legitimate medical needs of the United States. I think it is time. Our public health and safety depend on it.
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About Brinks DEA Consulting
Brinks DEA Consulting closely monitors DEA regulatory developments and assists healthcare organizations, telemedicine platforms, law firms, and healthcare providers in evaluating proposed regulatory changes, developing compliance strategies, preparing regulatory comments, and participating in federal rulemaking processes. Our team includes former senior DEA officials with extensive experience in interpreting, drafting, implementing, and enforcing controlled substance regulations.