Sale by Federal Departments or Agencies of Chemicals Which Could Be Used in the Illicit Manufacture of Controlled Substances

The Drug Enforcement Administration is finalizing the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Federal Register on May 8, 2003 (68 FR 24689). That NPRM proposed to conform DEA regulations to provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act which provides that a Federal department or agency may not sell from its stocks any chemical which could be used in the manufacture of a controlled substance unless the Administrator of DEA certifies in writing that there is no reasonable cause to believe that such a sale would result in the illegal manufacture of a controlled substance. This final rule codifies current practice established pursuant to statutory authority by which Federal agencies provide DEA with the opportunity to ensure that the sale of chemicals by them will not result in the illegal manufacture of controlled substances.