What a drug diversion violation costs

Only 107 of the 931 records in this registry state a dollar figure; between them they state 120 amounts (11 records state two, for example a fine and restitution). The other 824 state no amount, including 105 that say a fine, settlement or restitution was ordered without saying how much. Every figure below describes those 120 amounts, not the cost of diversion in general: records that state an amount are mostly federal prosecutions and corporate settlements, which run larger than the board orders that make up much of the registry.

How the amounts are spread

The amounts span six orders of magnitude, so the median says more than the mean would. Counts of amounts by order of magnitude:

Who paid: individuals and organisations

The clearest split in the data. A licensee's criminal fine and a hospital chain's civil settlement are different things; the registry keeps the payer's kind on every amount.

By kind of penalty

Kinds are as the record states them. A civil settlement resolves allegations without a finding of liability; a civil penalty is assessed by an agency; a criminal fine follows a conviction. Restitution and forfeiture are included because the person pays them, but they are not fines.

By role

Role is read from the record's Role field or, failing that, its title (the role pages explain the rule). Amounts in a role's row include organisational payments in that person's case, so a nurse's row can hold a hospital's settlement.

By drug class

A record naming drugs from two classes counts in both, so rows do not add up to 120. "Other controlled substance" is a Drug field that names no recognised generic, which is common in corporate settlements covering many drugs.

How these are counted

Computed from the records each time the site starts. An amount is a positive US-dollar figure in a record's structured penalty fields, the same amounts the settlements and fines page itemises and the state, drug and role pages summarise. Quartiles use linear interpolation between ranked amounts (the method spreadsheets use); a group with one amount reports it as the median and no interquartile range. Amounts are nominal dollars in the year stated, not adjusted for inflation. A record that describes a penalty in prose without a figure is counted in the “no amount” total above, never estimated. Licence outcomes, which most records state instead of money, are on licence outcomes; prison terms and outcome types on penalty outcomes. The records can be downloaded from the dataset page.

Educational analysis of public records, not legal advice.