Intelligence

During the late 1960s, the United States government felt the need for counter-narcotic legislature that could effectively meet drug problems at the federal level by combining several counter-narcotic laws into one comprehensible statute. The Act encompasses multiple amendments, including the Domestic Chemical Diversion and Control Act of 1993 (DCDCA). The DCDCA is just one of the multiple statutes passed that provides the DEA’s foundation to prevent chemical diversion. (Agency 2016)

The DCDCA of 1993 was created to “control the diversion of certain chemicals used in the illicit production of controlled substances such as methcathinone and methamphetamine, and for other purposes.” (govtrack.us 1993) The Act identifies specific chemicals such as salts, optical isomers and ephedrine, which are two primary chemicals needed to create such illegal substances. (govtrack.us 1993) Unfortunately, ephedrine was much easier to obtain prior to the publishing of this law. It could be easily obtained in mass quantities from commercial stores in the form legitimate medicines. Once US law enforcement was able to identify the most prevalent source used in the production of methamphetamine as being OTC medicines that contained ephedrine, steps were taken to hold manufactures accountable and require proper record keeping of the product. The DCDCA required DEA registration for all ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine manufacturers, distributers, importers, exporters and also established reporting requirements for transactions of such products. (Drug Enforcement Administration, Diversion Control Division 2013)

As stated before, the DCDCA is only one of many laws against chemical diversion. Other chemical diversion laws have limited the threshold of pseudoephedrine within any single transactions, increased penalties to cover clean-up costs incurred by the government, redefined nonprescription products that contain ephedrine, created electronic logbooks for recordkeeping, and established requirements for mail-order distributers. (Drug Enforcement Administration, Diversion Control Division 2013)

References

Agency, United States Drug Enforcement. Diversion Control/Prescription Drug Abuse. 2016. http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/ (accessed September 19, 2016).

Drug Enforcement Administration, Diversion Control Division. "Chemical Handler's Manual: A Guide to Chemical Control Regulations ." USDOJ.gov. 2013. http://deadiversion.usdoj.gov/pubs/manuals/chem/chem_manual.pdf (accessed September 19, 2016).

govtrack.us. S. 1767 (103rd): Domestic Chemical Diversion Control Act of 1993. November 20, 1993. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/103/s1767 (accessed September 19, 2016).