(a) Inventory

Except as provided in subsection (c)—

(1) every registrant under this subchapter shall, on May 1, 1971, or as soon thereafter as such registrant first engages in the manufacture, distribution, or dispensing of controlled substances, and every second year thereafter, make a complete and accurate record of all stocks thereof on hand, except that the regulations prescribed under this section shall permit each such biennial inventory (following the initial inventory required by this paragraph) to be prepared on such registrant’s regular general physical inventory date (if any) which is nearest to and does not vary by more than six months from the biennial date that would otherwise apply;

(2) on the effective date of each regulation of the Attorney General controlling a substance that immediately prior to such date was not a controlled substance, each registrant under this subchapter manufacturing, distributing, or dispensing such substance shall make a complete and accurate record of all stocks thereof on hand; and

(3) on and after May 1, 1971, every registrant under this subchapter manufacturing, distributing, or dispensing a controlled substance or substances shall maintain, on a current basis, a complete and accurate record of each such substance manufactured, received, sold, delivered, or otherwise disposed of by him, except that this paragraph shall not require the maintenance of a perpetual inventory.

(b) Availability of records

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Terms Used In 21 USC 827

  • administer: refers to the direct application of a controlled substance to the body of a patient or research subject by&mdash. See 21 USC 802
  • controlled substance: means a drug or other substance, or immediate precursor, included in schedule I, II, III, IV, or V of part B of this subchapter. See 21 USC 802
  • Convention on Psychotropic Substances: means the Convention on Psychotropic Substances signed at Vienna, Austria, on February 21, 1971. See 21 USC 802
  • detoxification treatment: means the dispensing, for a period not in excess of one hundred and eighty days, of a narcotic drug in decreasing doses to an individual in order to alleviate adverse physiological or psychological effects incident to withdrawal from the continuous or sustained use of a narcotic drug and as a method of bringing the individual to a narcotic drug-free state within such period. See 21 USC 802
  • distribute: means to deliver (other than by administering or dispensing) a controlled substance or a listed chemical. See 21 USC 802
  • distributor: means a person who so delivers a controlled substance or a listed chemical. See 21 USC 802
  • drug: has the meaning given that term by section 321(g)(1) of this title. See 21 USC 802
  • Drug Enforcement Administration: means the Drug Enforcement Administration in the Department of Justice. See 21 USC 802
  • individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
  • Internet: means collectively the myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities, including equipment and operating software, which comprise the interconnected worldwide network of networks that employ the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or any predecessor or successor protocol to such protocol, to communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio. See 21 USC 802
  • maintenance treatment: means the dispensing, for a period in excess of twenty-one days, of a narcotic drug in the treatment of an individual for dependence upon heroin or other morphine-like drugs. See 21 USC 802
  • manufacture: means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding, or processing of a drug or other substance, either directly or indirectly or by extraction from substances of natural origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, and includes any packaging or repackaging of such substance or labeling or relabeling of its container. See 21 USC 802
  • manufacturer: means a person who manufactures a drug or other substance. See 21 USC 802
  • practitioner: means a physician, dentist, veterinarian, scientific investigator, pharmacy, hospital, or other person licensed, registered, or otherwise permitted, by the United States or the jurisdiction in which he practices or does research, to distribute, dispense, conduct research with respect to, administer, or use in teaching or chemical analysis, a controlled substance in the course of professional practice or research. See 21 USC 802
  • Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs: means the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs signed at New York, New York, on March 30, 1961. See 21 USC 802
  • State: means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States. See 21 USC 802
  • United States: when used in a geographic sense, means all places and waters, continental or insular, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See 21 USC 802

Every inventory or other record required under this section (1) shall be in accordance with, and contain such relevant information as may be required by, regulations of the Attorney General, (2) shall (A) be maintained separately from all other records of the registrant, or (B) alternatively, in the case of nonnarcotic controlled substances, be in such form that information required by the Attorney General is readily retrievable from the ordinary business records of the registrant, and (3) shall be kept and be available, for at least two years, for inspection and copying by officers or employees of the United States authorized by the Attorney General.

(c) Nonapplicability

The foregoing provisions of this section shall not apply—

(1)(A) to the prescribing of controlled substances in schedule II, III, IV, or V by practitioners acting in the lawful course of their professional practice unless such substance is prescribed in the course of maintenance or detoxification treatment of an individual; or

(B) to the administering of a controlled substance in schedule II, III, IV, or V unless the practitioner regularly engages in the dispensing or administering of controlled substances and charges his patients, either separately or together with charges for other professional services, for substances so dispensed or administered or unless such substance is administered in the course of maintenance treatment or detoxification treatment of an individual;

(2)(A) to the use of controlled substances, at establishments registered under this subchapter which keep records with respect to such substances, in research conducted in conformity with an exemption granted under section 355(i) or 360b(j) of this title;

(B) to the use of controlled substances, at establishments registered under this subchapter which keep records with respect to such substances, in preclinical research or in teaching; or

(3) to the extent of any exemption granted to any person, with respect to all or part of such provisions, by the Attorney General by or pursuant to regulation on the basis of a finding that the application of such provisions (or part thereof) to such person is not necessary for carrying out the purposes of this subchapter.


Nothing in the Convention on Psychotropic Substances shall be construed as superseding or otherwise affecting the provisions of paragraph (1)(B), (2), or (3) of this subsection.

(d) Periodic reports to Attorney General

(1) Every manufacturer registered under section 823 of this title shall, at such time or times and in such form as the Attorney General may require, make periodic reports to the Attorney General of every sale, delivery or other disposal by him of any controlled substance, and each distributor shall make such reports with respect to narcotic controlled substances, identifying by the registration number assigned under this subchapter the person or establishment (unless exempt from registration under section 822(d) of this title) to whom such sale, delivery, or other disposal was made.

(2) Each pharmacy with a modified registration under section 823(g) of this title that authorizes the dispensing of controlled substances by means of the Internet shall report to the Attorney General the controlled substances it dispenses, in the amount specified, and in such time and manner as the Attorney General by regulation shall require, except that the Attorney General, under this paragraph, may not require any pharmacy to report any information other than the total quantity of each controlled substance that the pharmacy has dispensed each month. For purposes of this paragraph, no reporting shall be required unless the pharmacy has met 1 of the following thresholds in the month for which the reporting is required:

(A) 100 or more prescriptions dispensed.

(B) 5,000 or more dosage units of all controlled substances combined.

(e) Reporting and recordkeeping requirements of drug conventions

In addition to the reporting and recordkeeping requirements under any other provision of this subchapter, each manufacturer registered under section 823 of this title shall, with respect to narcotic and nonnarcotic controlled substances manufactured by it, make such reports to the Attorney General, and maintain such records, as the Attorney General may require to enable the United States to meet its obligations under articles 19 and 20 of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and article 16 of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The Attorney General shall administer the requirements of this subsection in such a manner as to avoid the unnecessary imposition of duplicative requirements under this subchapter on manufacturers subject to the requirements of this subsection.

(f) Records and reports of registrants

(1) The Attorney General shall, not less frequently than quarterly, make the following information available to manufacturer and distributor registrants through the Automated Reports and Consolidated Orders System, or any subsequent automated system developed by the Drug Enforcement Administration to monitor selected controlled substances:

(A) The total number of distributor registrants that distribute controlled substances to a pharmacy or practitioner registrant, aggregated by the name and address of each pharmacy and practitioner registrant.

(B) The total quantity and type of opioids distributed, listed by Administration Controlled Substances Code Number, to each pharmacy and practitioner registrant described in subparagraph (A).


(2) The information required to be made available under paragraph (1) shall be made available not later than the 30th day of the first month following the quarter to which the information relates.

(3)(A) All registered manufacturers and distributors shall be responsible for reviewing the information made available by the Attorney General under this subsection.

(B) In determining whether to initiate proceedings under this subchapter against a registered manufacturer or distributor based on the failure of the registrant to maintain effective controls against diversion or otherwise comply with the requirements of this subchapter or the regulations issued thereunder, the Attorney General may take into account that the information made available under this subsection was available to the registrant.

(g) Investigational uses of drugs; procedures

Regulations under sections 355(i) and 360(j) of this title, relating to investigational use of drugs, shall include such procedures as the Secretary, after consultation with the Attorney General, determines are necessary to insure the security and accountability of controlled substances used in research to which such regulations apply.

(h) Change of address

Every registrant under this subchapter shall be required to report any change of professional or business address in such manner as the Attorney General shall by regulation require.

(i) Reporting requirements for GHB

In the case of a drug product containing gamma hydroxybutyric acid for which an application has been approved under section 355 of this title, the Attorney General may, in addition to any other requirements that apply under this section with respect to such a drug product, establish any of the following as reporting requirements:

(1) That every person who is registered as a manufacturer of bulk or dosage form, as a packager, repackager, labeler, relabeler, or distributor shall report acquisition and distribution transactions quarterly, not later than the 15th day of the month succeeding the quarter for which the report is submitted, and annually report end-of-year inventories.

(2) That all annual inventory reports shall be filed no later than January 15 of the year following that for which the report is submitted and include data on the stocks of the drug product, drug substance, bulk drug, and dosage forms on hand as of the close of business December 31, indicating whether materials reported are in storage or in process of manufacturing.

(3) That every person who is registered as a manufacturer of bulk or dosage form shall report all manufacturing transactions both inventory increases, including purchases, transfers, and returns, and reductions from inventory, including sales, transfers, theft, destruction, and seizure, and shall provide data on material manufactured, manufactured from other material, use in manufacturing other material, and use in manufacturing dosage forms.

(4) That all reports under this section must include the registered person’s registration number as well as the registration numbers, names, and other identifying information of vendors, suppliers, and customers, sufficient to allow the Attorney General to track the receipt and distribution of the drug.

(5) That each dispensing practitioner shall maintain for each prescription the name of the prescribing practitioner, the prescribing practitioner’s Federal and State registration numbers, with the expiration dates of these registrations, verification that the prescribing practitioner possesses the appropriate registration to prescribe this controlled substance, the patient’s name and address, the name of the patient’s insurance provider and documentation by a medical practitioner licensed and registered to prescribe the drug of the patient’s medical need for the drug. Such information shall be available for inspection and copying by the Attorney General.

(6) That section 830(b)(3) of this title (relating to mail order reporting) applies with respect to gamma hydroxybutyric acid to the same extent and in the same manner as such section applies with respect to the chemicals and drug products specified in subparagraph (A)(i) of such section.

(j) Electronic reporting format

All of the reports required under this section shall be provided in an electronic format.

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