What Happened
A federal Decision and Order found that a New Mexico psychiatrist unlawfully possessed controlled substances he took back from patients after they had already been dispensed, and that he failed to keep required inventories or receipt/dispensing records for those drugs and for controlled-substance samples in his office.
The agency rejected the government's separate claim that he redistributed the drugs to other patients as unproven Based on the recordkeeping and unlawful-possession findings, and because the state medical board had restricted his authority to prescribe narcotics, DEA suspended his registration for six months and limited his renewed registration to non-narcotic controlled substances.
What the Record Shows
DEA registration renewal granted subject to a six-month suspension and restriction to non-narcotic controlled substances only; DATA-Waiver authority to prescribe Suboxone/Subutex revoked.
Why It Matters for Diversion Programs
This entry comes from a primary source rather than a federal enforcement release, and it is recorded as reported: Took back and retained already-dispensed controlled substances directly from patients outside the CSA's closed distribution system, and failed to maintain any inventory or records of the controlled substances he received or the drug samples kept in his office; a separate allegation that he redistributed these drugs to other patients was investigated but found unproven.. Board and news records are a lagging indicator - by the time a licensing authority or a reporter learns of a diversion, the diversion was normally detected internally first, which makes each entry a signal that inventory reconciliation, waste observation or dispensing oversight failed earlier.