The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently issued a new regulation codifying provisions of the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2014 (VMMA). The VMMA, which was signed into law in 2014, allows a veterinarian to transport and dispense controlled substances in the usual course of veterinary practice at a site other than the veterinarian’s registered principal place of business or professional practice without obtaining a separate registration, subject to certain limitations. The new DEA regulation, which went into effect on February 8, 2024 and is now located at 21 CFR § 1301.12(c), codifies the VMMA and reads:

“As provided in 21 U.S.C. 822(e)(2), a registrant who is a veterinarian may transport and dispense controlled substances in the usual course of veterinary practice at a site other than the registrant’s registered principal place of business or professional practice without obtaining a separate registration so long as the site of transporting and dispensing is located in a State where the veterinarian is licensed to practice veterinary medicine and is not a principal place of business or professional practice.”

The regulation makes no substantive change to existing legal requirements. Rather, this change is the result of DEA amending its regulations to conform to the VMMA and formalizes DEA’s longstanding guidance on what is known as the “black bag exception.”