May 10 & 11, 2016; Sheraton Indianapolis City Centre Hotel — Indianapolis, Indiana

Introduction

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) held a Distributor Conference on May 10-11, 2016, in Indianapolis. The purpose of this conference was to provide an overview of federal laws and regulations that affect pharmaceutical and chemical distributors, such as recordkeeping, Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS), and suspicious order reporting. Over 178 employees from various distributor companies attended. The conference attendees received approximately seven hours of instruction on a variety of topics. The presentations included: Distributor Trends, Disposal and Updates; DEA Inspection Process; ARCOS; and an overview of Civil and Criminal Prosecution of Diversion Cases. Both days of the conference concluded with a short Q&A session and closing remarks by Mr. Arnold.

Conference Report

Distributor Trends, Disposal and Updates – James A. Arnold, Acting Chief, Liaison & Policy Section, Office of Diversion Control, DEA.

ARCOS Presentation – Sam Weisman, Pharmaceutical Investigations Section, Office of Diversion Control, DEA.

Criminal Prosecution of Diversion Cases – Deborah Griffin, Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of Alabama, Dept. of Justice and Christopher Bodnar, Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of Alabama, Dept. of Justice.