Diversion Control

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Of all the major drugs of abuse, only marijuana is available as a natural, harvested product. The others, whether they are illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, or legitimately produced pharmaceuticals, must be produced or manufactured. Many problems associated with drug abuse are the result of legitimately manufactured controlled substances being diverted from their lawful purpose into illicit drug traffic. The DEA's Office of Diversion Control is responsible for two distinct problems: the diversion of controlled pharmaceuticals and the diversion of controlled chemicals.

Diversion of Controlled Pharmaceuticals

Many of the narcotics, depressants, and stimulants manufactured for legitimate medical use are subject to abuse, and have therefore been brought under legal control. The goal of controls is to ensure that these "controlled substances" are readily available for medical use, while preventing their distribution for illicit sale and abuse. Under federal law, all businesses that manufacture or distribute controlled drugs, all health professionals entitled to dispense, administer or prescribe them, and all pharmacies entitled to fill prescriptions must register with the DEA. Registrants must comply with a series of regulatory requirements relating to drug security, records accountability, and adherence to standards. The DEA is also obligated under international treaties to monitor the movement of licit controlled substances across U.S. borders and to issue import and export permits for that movement. The DEA also devises ways to deal with problems of international drug diversion.

Diversion cases involve, but are not limited to, physicians who sell prescriptions to drug dealers or abusers, pharmacists who falsify records and subsequently sell the drugs, employees who steal from inventory and falsify orders to cover illicit sales, prescription forgers, and individuals who commit armed robbery of pharmacies and drug distributors.

Diversion of Controlled Chemicals

Most of the drugs in the illicit traffic are products of illicit processing or synthesis. Cocaine, for example, can be extracted and converted to its preferred form only by using a tremendous quantity of industrial chemicals. Heroin must be synthesized by using an acetylating agent after the morphine has been extracted from raw, harvested opium. Methamphetamine, PCP, LSD, MDMA and methaqualone are purely synthetic drugs manufactured from chemical precursors.

Until recently, there were virtually no legal impediments to obtaining the chemicals necessary to manufacture drugs of abuse, no records required to be maintained for inspection, and no penalties for negligence or willful diversion. The Chemical Diversion and Trafficking Act of 1988 extended the concept of commodity control to those chemicals most often used for the manufacture and synthesis of drugs of abuse. With the support of the State Department, the DEA pursued the same goal on the international level. The result was the incorporation of Article 12 into the U.N. Convention Against Illicit Drug Traffic of 1988 (the Vienna Convention). This provision established similar controls over a list of 22 critical chemicals commonly diverted for the production of the major drugs of abuse. Furthermore, in February 1991, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act was passed by Congress. The act classified 27 named steroids as Schedule III substances under the Controlled Substances Act which DEA administers. In 1993 domestic chemical control was strengthened with enactment of the Domestic Chemical Diversion Control Act, which added a registration requirement for List I chemical handlers, and removed exemptions in order to prevent diversion of methamphetamine precursor chemicals. Subsequently, Congress passed the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act of 1996 and the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 2000 to pointedly address the growing problem of clandestine methamphetamine production and abuse in the United States.

The Office of Diversion Control consists of diversion investigators, chemists, pharmacologists, program analysts, and others. The office's activities include: program priorities and field management oversight; coordination of major investigations; drafting and promulgating of regulations; establishment of national drug production quotas; design and execution of diplomatic missions; U.S. obligations under drug control treaties; design and proposal of national legislation; advice and leadership on state legislation/regulation; legal control of drugs and chemicals not previously under federal control; control of imports and exports of drugs and chemicals; computerized monitoring and tracking of the distribution of certain controlled drugs; distribution of intelligence to the states; liaison with industry; and the planning and allocation of program resources.