CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The federal Drug Enforcement Administration will be in Charleston this weekend to educate any health care provider and practitioner on drug diversion awareness.
The one-day conferences, the Practitioner Diversion Awareness Conference, will take place Saturday and Sunday at the Charleston Marriott Town Center.
“When somebody leaves this conference, we want to know they can take something away from this,” DEA Diversion Program Manager of Louisville’s Field Division Martin Redd said. “We want to make sure if they have any hand in control substance handling, which means if they administer a control substance, dispense, prescribe, or order, we want them to be aware of federal regulations.”
“We want them to be aware of how to keep correct records, how to keep correct inventory and manage their office, and facilities safely and securely. We will give them information about security they should keep up with.”
The conference is free and welcomes all DEA-registered doctors, veterinarians, dentists, physician assistant and other practitioners. Redd says even if someone is not registered with the DEA, they will be able to register on-site or register by calling the Charleston DEA office.
“We are not going to turn anyone away that wants this educational awareness,” Redd said. “There’s many ways to register and we just want people to show up and get educated.”
“We had a gentleman come up to us at this event in Kentucky and say this was the total opposite of what he had been thinking. He said he had the wrong thinking of what the DEA does and what it doesn’t do. He added that he knows now that we don’t dictate how they prescribe medicine. We, the DEA, are squashing all the myths with these conferences.”
Attendees can earn continuing education credits, totaling 6.5 hours, to go towards annual re-certification.
“There’s thousands of practitioners in West Virginia,” Redd said. “We understand people are busy with business and personal lives. But if we can get several hundred each day, get four or five hundred people in the door total, what they are going to do is go back to their friends, colleagues and co-workers and pass the same word along that they learned at the conference.”
The DEA started diversion awareness conferences for pharmacies four or five years ago, according to Redd, and he believes practitioner awareness conferences are the next phase in the process.