DEA number

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States Department of Justice law enforcement agency tasked with enforcing the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. It shares concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in narcotics enforcement matters.

A DEA number is a series of numbers assigned to a health care provider (such as a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinarian) allowing them to write prescriptions for controlled substances. Legally the DEA number is solely to be used for tracking controlled substances. The DEA number, however, is often used by the industry as a general "prescriber" number that is a unique identifier for anyone who can prescribe medication.

A valid DEA number consists of:

• 2 letters, 6 numbers, & 1 check digit
• The first letter is a code identifying the type of registrant (see below)
• The second letter is the first letter of the registrant's last name
• Of the seven digits that follow, the seventh digit is a "checksum" that is calculated as:
• Add together the first, third and fifth digits call this CALC_1,3,5
• Add together the second, fourth and sixth digits and multiply the sum by 2, call this CALC_2,4,6
• Add CALC_1,3,5 + CALC_2,4,6 call this CHECK
• The rightmost digit of CHECK (the digit in the ones place) is used as the check digit in the DEA number

Registrant type (first letter of DEA Number):

A -......

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