FEDERAL CRIMINAL LAWYERS

Understanding DEA Registration Requirements for New Jersey Physicians

Understanding DEA Registration Requirements for New Jersey Physicians

Your hospital’s compliance officer just sent you an email with the subject line “URGENT: DEA Registration Issue.” Your New Jersey controlled dangerous substance registration shows as “inactive” in the state database. Your federal DEA number—the one you’ve used for five years to prescribe everything from Ambien to Adderall—is about to be revoked because the state registration it depends on no longer exists. You have patients scheduled tomorrow who need prescriptions you can’t write.

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group—a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek. We defend physicians facing DEA investigations, federal drug trafficking charges, and Medical Board proceedings in New Jersey and across the country. Todd represented Anna Delvey in the case that became a Netflix series. We’ve handled many, many, cases involving DEA registration issues, we know how quickly a state licensing problem becomes a federal criminal investigation.

You Need Two Separate Approvals—And Nobody Told You

You just got your New Jersey medical license, you’re ready to open your practice. You thought getting a DEA number was one application to the federal government. Wrong. New Jersey requires you get state CDS registration FIRST, then federal DEA registration SECOND—lose the state one, the federal one automatically disappears.

Most physicians discover this dependency too late—during a renewal crisis or when the state board suspends their CDS registration for a compliance issue they didn’t know existed. The federal government doesn’t independently evaluate whether you should have DEA registration. Under 21 CFR § 1301.12(a) (https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/faq/registration-faq.html), federal DEA registration depends entirely on “authority to dispense controlled substances under the laws of the state in which [the] practitioner engages in professional practice.”

Here’s the three-step sequence nobody explains when you graduate medical school: First, obtain your New Jersey medical license through the Board of Medical Examiners, second, apply for New Jersey controlled dangerous substance registration through the Drug Control Unit (https://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/dcu/Pages/FAQregistration.aspx) (a completely separate agency), third, once your state CDS registration is active apply for federal DEA registration, the federal government won’t even process your DEA application if your state CDS registration isn’t active.

Why does this matter? Most physicians assume their state medical license is enough to support federal DEA registration. It’s not. New Jersey is one of the states that requires a separate controlled substance permit, if your medical license is active but your CDS registration lapses—which can happen for administrative reasons like missing a training deadline or not responding to a Drug Control Unit notice—your federal DEA registration becomes instantly invalid under 21 U.S.C. § 824(a)(3).

Dr. Serge Menkin learned this in June 2025. The DEA revoked his Certificate of Registration No. BM8723795 and denied all pending renewal applications (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/10/2025-10502/serge-menkin-md-decision-and-order). The reason? His New Jersey controlled dangerous substance license became “inactive.” It didn’t matter that his medical license was still valid. The moment state CDS authority disappeared, federal DEA authority disappeared. No hearing. No appeal. No grace period. Immediate revocation published in the Federal Register.

Why Your Out-of-State DEA Number Just Got You Reported

You’ve been practicing in Pennsylvania for years with a valid DEA number, you just opened a second office in New Jersey, you’re using your PA DEA number to prescribe in NJ. A pharmacy just called to say they’re reporting you to the state board for “prescriber location mismatch.”

Every state requires separate DEA registration (https://lengealaw.com/navigating-dea-license-requirements-do-you-need-a-separate-registration-for-each-location/). This isn’t a suggestion, it’s federal law under 21 CFR § 1301.12(a). If you practice medicine in multiple states, you need multiple DEA numbers. Your Pennsylvania registration authorizes prescribing controlled substances in Pennsylvania. Period. Using it to prescribe in New Jersey is practicing without DEA authorization, every prescription you wrote is technically an unlawful distribution of controlled substances.

Telemedicine makes this worse. If you’re sitting in Pennsylvania prescribing to a patient in New Jersey, you need New Jersey DEA registration—even if you never physically enter New Jersey, the registration follows the patient’s location not yours, when COVID-19 emergency provisions allowed interstate prescribing without separate state registration many physicians started prescribing across state lines, those emergency provisions ended, the separate-registration-per-state requirement is back in full force.

Pharmacies flag this constantly. Their computer systems check prescriber DEA numbers against the prescriber’s stated location. When a Pennsylvania DEA number shows up on a New Jersey prescription, the pharmacy’s compliance software alerts them to a potential fraud issue, some pharmacies simply refuse to fill the prescription, others report it to the state pharmacy board which then reports it to the state medical board which then reports it to the DEA.

Each unlawful prescription is a separate federal offense. If you wrote 100 prescriptions using an out-of-state DEA number, that’s 100 potential federal distribution charges, prosecutors don’t charge all of them but they use the total number to calculate sentencing guidelines, more prescriptions equals higher sentencing range equals more pressure to plead guilty.

Your State License Just Got Suspended—What Happens to Your Federal DEA Number?

Your New Jersey CDS registration renewal was denied because you missed the NJPMP training deadline, your hospital’s compliance officer just told you that your federal DEA registration is now invalid too, you have 45 days before your DEA expires and you can’t prescribe anything.

This is the automatic revocation trap. When your state CDS registration becomes inactive—for any reason—your federal DEA registration becomes automatically invalid under 21 U.S.C. § 824(a)(3) (https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj), the DEA doesn’t conduct an independent hearing to determine if revocation is appropriate, they don’t evaluate whether the state board’s decision was fair, they don’t consider whether you had due process at the state level, if you lack state authority you lack federal authority, automatic revocation.

Remember Dr. Serge Menkin’s case from June 2025? The Federal Register published the DEA’s decision to revoke his registration because his New Jersey controlled dangerous substance license was inactive, the decision doesn’t explain why his state license became inactive, it doesn’t matter, once state authority disappears federal authority disappears the same day.

Here’s the timeline: State CDS registration suspended, federal DEA registration automatically invalid, hospital privileges suspended (can’t prescribe without DEA), unable to practice medicine, income stops, malpractice insurance questions coverage, patients transferred to other physicians, practice effectively destroyed, all of this happens within 48-72 hours of the initial state action.

Here’s the constitutional problem nobody explains—you’re facing three separate proceedings for the same conduct, the state medical board investigates you for whatever triggered the CDS suspension, the DEA revokes your federal registration administratively, the U.S. Attorney’s Office opens a criminal investigation for practicing without DEA authorization, three different agencies, three different standards of proof, three different procedures—all running simultaneously, all using the same facts against you.

You can’t win the federal DEA fight without winning the state CDS fight first. That’s why you need lawyers who handle both. Most medical defense attorneys only practice before state medical boards, they don’t handle federal DEA administrative proceedings, they definitely don’t handle federal criminal cases, when your state license problem triggers federal consequences you need a law firm that defends physicians in all three arenas at once.

This is where Spodek Law Group is different. We fight state medical board proceedings AND federal DEA revocations AND federal criminal investigations, unlike other firms who specialize in one type of case we’ve handled many, many, physician defense cases across all three systems—we know how to prevent a state licensing issue from becoming a federal criminal case.

The DEA Agent in Your Waiting Room: What to Say (and What Not to Say)

A DEA Diversion Control investigator is in your waiting room asking your receptionist for your controlled substance prescription logs. You have 60 seconds to decide what to say.

Don’t panic. Don’t cooperate without counsel. Here’s what they don’t tell you—DEA investigations start with data analytics (https://www.dea.gov/divisions/new-jersey), their prescription monitoring systems flag patterns they consider suspicious, high prescription volumes especially for Schedule II opioids, prescriptions written on days the practitioner claimed to be out of the office, patients traveling long distances for controlled substance prescriptions, insurance billing patterns that don’t match prescribing patterns, the DEA’s algorithms analyze millions of prescriptions looking for outliers, when your prescribing pattern deviates from statistical norms you get flagged, the investigation starts before you know it exists. Dr. Ritesh Kalra issued over 31,000 oxycodone prescriptions between January 2019 and February 2025, some days he wrote 50+ prescriptions, in July 2025 he was charged with three counts of distributing opioids outside the usual course of professional practice and two counts of healthcare fraud, prosecutors allege he solicited sexual favors from patients in exchange for prescriptions and defrauded New Jersey Medicaid, the case started with prescription data analytics not patient complaints, the DEA’s systems flagged his volume, they built the case for months before approaching him, by the time agents showed up at his office they already had thousands of pages of evidence. Dr. Larry Pettis, age 76, owned pain management practices with multiple New Jersey locations, in February 2025 he was arrested for pre-signing prescription pads so that other individuals—who weren’t authorized to prescribe controlled substances—could issue prescriptions when Pettis was out of the office, this is distribution not prescribing, each pre-signed prescription is a separate federal charge, Pettis thought he was being efficient by signing blank pads so his staff could help patients when he was busy, prosecutors called it conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, he’s facing decades in federal prison for what he thought was practice management. Dr. Brian Sokalsky pleaded guilty in October 2024 to conspiring to commit healthcare fraud, he agreed to authorize prescriptions for a former pharmaceutical sales representative in exchange for patient referrals to his new medical practice, kickback schemes trigger both DEA investigations and federal fraud prosecutions, what starts as a business relationship becomes a federal conspiracy charge. When the DEA investigator shows up unannounced your Fifth Amendment rights still apply, you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to consult with an attorney before answering questions, saying “I need to speak with my lawyer before I can respond to your questions” is not obstruction it’s exercising constitutional rights, the investigator might suggest that refusing to cooperate makes you look guilty, ignore that, prosecutors use everything you say against you later, nothing you say will “clear things up” or make the investigation go away, every statement you make gets recorded in the investigator’s report, every explanation you offer becomes evidence they use to establish intent, every document you hand over gets analyzed by forensic accountants and medical experts looking for violations, cooperation without counsel is how physicians turn administrative issues into federal criminal cases.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees your right to counsel. Use it. Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196 before you answer any questions from DEA investigators.

Your DEA Expires in 120 Days—And Your State License Renewal Is Stuck

Your DEA registration expires in 120 days, you need to renew, renewal requires proof of active New Jersey CDS registration, CDS renewal requires MATE Act training (8 hours on opioid treatment), MATE Act training providers are booked until after your deadline.

DEA registration expires every three years, the renewal application window opens 120 days before expiration, if you don’t renew before the expiration date your DEA registration lapses, prescribing controlled substances after expiration is the same federal crime as prescribing without DEA registration in the first place, no grace period, no retroactive renewal, expiration equals immediate criminal exposure.

State CDS registration must be active when you submit your federal DEA renewal application, if your state registration expired six months ago and you just now realized it you can’t renew your federal DEA until you renew your state CDS first, Catch-22: You need state renewal to get federal renewal but state renewal takes weeks or months to process and your federal DEA expires in 60 days.

The MATE Act added new training requirements starting in 2022, most DEA-registered prescribers must complete a one-time 8-hour training on treating and managing patients with opioid use disorder, if you haven’t completed this training and you’re renewing your DEA registration your application will be rejected, training providers are overwhelmed, many physicians wait 8-12 weeks for available training slots which means they risk missing their renewal deadline.

Practicing with an expired DEA registration carries the same penalties as practicing without DEA registration, each prescription written after expiration is unlawful distribution of controlled substances, the same federal prosecutors who charge physicians for pre-signed prescriptions will charge physicians for expired-DEA prescriptions, they don’t care that you applied for renewal, if your DEA number expired you’re practicing without authorization.

Remember the three cases I mentioned earlier—Dr. Ritesh Kalra (July 2025) faces charges for 31,000+ oxycodone prescriptions, Dr. Larry Pettis (February 2025) was arrested for pre-signed prescriptions, Dr. Serge Menkin (June 2025) had his federal DEA registration revoked when his state CDS license went inactive—the pattern is clear, state licensing problems trigger federal consequences within days not months.

The 10-year statute of limitations means federal prosecutors can charge cases through 2030 or 2031, if the DEA Diversion Control Division contacted you about prescribing patterns, or if your state CDS registration has any compliance issues, you need a federal defense lawyer who knows New Jersey prosecutors and the Drug Control Unit within days not weeks.

Spodek Law Group has defended physicians in DEA investigations for many, many, years, unlike other firms that only handle state Medical Board cases we fight both the state CDS registration battle and the federal DEA administrative proceedings simultaneously, we know how New Jersey’s dual-requirement system works, we know how to prevent a state licensing issue from becoming a federal criminal case.

212-300-5196.