The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States Department of Justice law enforcement agency tasked with enforcing the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. It shares concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in narcotics enforcement matters.

A DEA number is a series of numbers assigned to a health care provider (such as a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician's assistant) allowing them to write prescriptions for controlled substances. Legally the DEA number is solely to be used for tracking controlled substances. The DEA number, however, is often used by the industry as a general "prescriber" number that is a unique identifier for anyone who can prescribe medication.

A valid DEA number consists of: ^*

• 2 letters and 7 digits
• The first letter is either an "A" or a "B"
• The second letter is the initial of the registrant's last name
• The seventh digit is a "checksum" that is calculated as:
  • Add together the first, third and fifth digits
  • Add together the second, fourth and sixth digits and multiply the sum by 2
  • Add the above 2 numbers
  • The last digit (the one's value) of this last sum is used as the seventh digit in the DEA number

United States controlled substances law | Identifiers