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Catalent has registered a facility in Missouri with the DEA to import cannabis extracts in dosage form for clinical trial studies…The contract development and manufacturing organisation  applied for its Kansas City...site to be registered as an importer of controlled substances in August, and last week the Drug Enforcement Administration approved the request…“[Catalent Pharma Solutions] is granted registration as an importer of marihuana, a basic class of controlled substance listed in schedule I,”…“The company plans to import finished pharmaceutical products containing cannabis extracts in dosage form for clinical trial studies.”..One of Catalent’s customers is GW Pharmaceuticals which has a marijuana-based compound, Epidiolex (cannabidiol), in Phase III trials for the treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome…The company ships finished product to a storage facility run by Catalant in the US and investigators draw material from that facility,”

Drug Enforcement Administration…announced Pittsburgh as the pilot city for a comprehensive law enforcement and prevention “360 Strategy” to help cities dealing with a heroin and prescription drug abuse epidemic, and its associated violent crime…“The work of law enforcement to remove the traffickers and the work of our partner agencies doing treatment and prevention in Pittsburgh has already had an impact on the city’s drug problem,”…“The 360 strategy brings together for the first time, the agencies that have dealt with this problem separately, into a comprehensive and sustained effort to not only fight drug traffickers but also to make communities resilient to their return.”…The DEA 360 Strategy comprises a three-fold approach to fighting drug traffickers:

• Provide DEA leadership
• Have a long-lasting impact
• Change attitudes

DEA…today announced results from the 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment, which found that drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury (and) death in the United States, ahead of deaths from motor vehicle accidents and firearms. In 2013, more than 46,000 people in the United States died from a drug overdose and more than half of those were caused by prescription painkillers and heroin…Since 2002, prescription drug deaths have outpaced those of cocaine and heroin combined. Abuse of controlled prescription drugs is higher than that of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, MDMA, and PCP combined… Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 25 to 40 times more potent than heroin, has caused more than 700 deaths in the U.S. between late 2013 and early 2015. Fentanyl is sometimes added to heroin batches, or sold by itself as heroin, unknown to the user...

James Schiffer, RPh, associate at Allegaert Berger & Vogel LLC, discusses some of the DEA's requirements for handling controlled substances.

Bradley Bender, Southampton Town Councilman, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to illegally distribute oxycodone…Bender received phony prescriptions for oxycodone from a Riverhead physician assistant, Michael Troyan, filled those prescriptions, and illegally exchanged the oxycodone pills for cash and steroids with another co-conspirator. The oxycodone pills were then re-sold to drug abusers…“Councilman Bender’s actions in this oxycodone distribution conspiracy victimized the very community he was entrusted to represent…guilty plea should serve as a reminder that no one is above the law, including those entrusted with passing our laws.”

Carlos Aquino, founder and president of PharmaDiversion LLC, talks about his experience working undercover for the Philadelphia Drug Enforcement Administration task force.

Drug Enforcement Administration…announced...an indictment today against three individuals and two pharmacies for a multimillion-dollar oxycodone distribution scheme…through pharmacies operated in Brooklyn and Queens. Lilian Jakacki, Marcin Jakacki, Robert Cybulski, European Apothecary Inc, Chopin Chemists, MW&W Global Enterprises Inc…charged with illegally distributing more than 500,000 pills of oxycodone...with a street value between $10 million and $15 million.  The defendants are also charged with money laundering and health care fraud…one of the largest illegal diversions of oxycodone…in a New York State pharmacy. Pharmacies also illegally diverted more than 160,000 additional pills by accepting 1,300 fraudulent prescriptions…including prescriptions made out in the names of famous luxury brands such as “Coach” or “Chanel.”

A group of San Diego, California, pharmacies and their owners have paid $750,000 to the federal government to resolve drug diversion claims…pharmacies had been accused of mishandling prescription narcotics and ephedrine/pseudoephedrine products…The settlement was with Park Medical Pharmacy Inc…and owners Joseph Grasela and John Grasela…Drug Enforcement Administration alleged that the pharmacies had violated the Controlled Substances Act by diverting a “significant” amount of controlled substances, not taking adequate inventory of controlled substances, and not maintaining records of the pharmacies’ distribution of products.

…law enforcement side of prescription drug abuse—including the rise in pharmacy crime, such as robberies, and second in Pharmacy Today’s “Challenges of Pain” series. The series shows how pharmacists and their patients with legitimate pain needs are affected by issues and efforts around prescription drug abuse.

• Concern for pharmacists’ safety
• Preventing robberies: Start with the basics
• DEA adds to its focus
• GAO report: Questions raised about DEA’s approach
• GAO surveys of DEA registrants
• DEA: Patient access not affected
• Be aware and prepared

James Schiffer, RPh, associate at Allegaert Berger & Vogel LLC, discusses some red flags related to prescriptions that can lead to administrative action from the DEA. (video)