Healthcare Professionals and the DEA: Trying to Get Back in Balance

It was with cautious optimism that I and my colleagues accepted an invitation to participate in a meeting on August 10 at the offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Arlington, Virginia, whose purpose was to bring together leaders outside the government in the field of pain and addiction medicine with officials of the DEA. Among those present were representatives of practicing healthcare professionals, the Pain and Policy Studies Group, University of Wisconsin–Madison Medical School, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, and the Federation of State Medical Boards. The DEA was represented by Michele Leonhart, Deputy Administrator, and eight of her high-ranking staff members.The purpose of the meeting was for officials at the DEA to listen to those in the frontlines of the “pain community” voice concerns about the interim policy statement (IPS) on “Dispensing of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain” that was published in the Federal Register on November 16, 2004. This IPS followed the unilateral withdrawal by the DEA of Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for Health Care Professionals and Law Enforcement Personnel (FAQ), a document originally published on the Office of Diversion Control's Website in August 2004. The IPS addressed several alleged “misstatements” in FAQ, but failed to affirm the educational value of the overwhelming majority of the 30 questions-and-answers statements in the FAQ.The DEA, Last Acts Partnership, and the Pain and Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin joined forces in 2001 to produce FAQ. The authors consisted of a principal working group (6), which included the experts who developed the framework of FAQ, and a review committee (12), which included experts from the fields of nursing, neurology, psychiatry, pharmacology, pharmacy, and addiction medicine, whose charge was to produce a highly readable FAQ that …