Diversion Logbook

DEA's Diversion Control Division prevents, detects, and investigates the diversion—or movement—of controlled pharmaceuticals from legitimate sources. Their work ensures an adequate and uninterrupted supply for legitimate medical, commercial, and scientific needs. In other words, they make sure legal drugs get to the people who need them, not illegal markets.

The Diversion Control Division is made up of many different people, including investigators, special agents, chemists, pharmacologists, program analysts, and others. Diversion investigators, like the one who kept this logbook, track the United States’ drug supply and register people and companies that handle controlled drugs.

Controlled substances are regulated by the Controlled Substances Act, which Congress passed in 1970. The original law and its amendments place all substances regulated under federal law into five categories. Drugs are scheduled based on acceptable medical use and the drug’s abuse or dependency potential.

Once scheduled, DEA can monitor and enforce a closed distribution system of the substance, meaning any person or company involved in the production, distribution, or prescription of that controlled substance must register with DEA and keep complete, accurate inventories of their stock. From 1986 to 2006, this logbook’s owner documented visits to pharmacies to make sure they complied with all requirements.

Sometimes, people break the rules. A physician selling prescriptions to a drug dealer or a pharmacist falsifying records to sell unprescribed drugs threatens the closed distribution system that DEA enforces. Diversion Control investigates these cases and more. The book’s investigator also recorded colleagues assigned to cases and actions they took. Its pages are chock full of information from a very demanding job, but you probably won’t see diversion investigators carrying another one like it. Today, assignments and pharmacy inspections are tracked with computers.

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