Drug Enforcement Administration decode DEA Number Information

DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) enforces the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States.

• DEA regulates controlled substances registration numbers licensed health practitors and sites
• Health practitors or sites are assigned DEA number
• These DEA registration number is encoded by two alphabetical letters followed by a seven digit number
• The first letter is always either an ‘A’ or ‘B’. This letter depends on when the DEA number was first issued. All of the ‘A’ s were used up and it changed to B in the late 1980s, about 1987 as I recall.
• The second letter is always the first letter of the practitor’s last name.

Seven digit mystery

The seven digits have a mathematical relationship that is always followed.
Do this exercise with your DEA number to verify it:
Let’s use the first six digits (142432) as an example to determine what the final digit must be in order for it to be a valid DEA number:

1. Add the first, third and fifth numbers.
2. In this case we have 1+2+3 = 6
3. Now add the second, fourth and sixth numbers. 4+4+2 = 10.
4. Double the sum you just calculated 10×2 = 20.
5. Add this to the first sum. 20+6 = 26.
6. Take the last digit in that sum (the sum is 26, the first digit is 2, the last digit is 6).
7. The final digit in the above DEA number must be 6.
8. 1424326 is a valid DEA number. Any other digit (other than 6 in this example due to the mathematical relationship that must exist) as the last digit, is a fraud.

Registrant type (first letter of DEA Number):

A - Deprecated (may be used by some older entities)
B - Hospital/Clinic
C - Practitioner
D - Teaching Institutiion
E - Manufacturer
F - Distributor and/or Practictioner
G - Researcher
H - Analytical Lab
J - Importer
K - Exporter
L - Reverse Distributor
M - Mid-Level Practitioner
N - Narcotic Treatment Program
P - Narcotic Treatment Program
R - Narcotic Treatment Program
S - Narcotic Treatment Program
T - Narcotic Treatment Program
U - Narcotic Treatment Program