```

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 249 (Monday, December 30, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 106587-106588]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-31317]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Drug Enforcement Administration

[Docket No. 24-67]

Jason Lee Ray, PA-C; Decision and Order

    On August 22, 2024, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA or 
Government) issued an Order to Show Cause (OSC) to Jason Lee Ray, PA-C, 
of Marbleton, Wyoming (Respondent). OSC, at 1, 4. The OSC proposed the 
revocation of Respondent's DEA Certificate of Registration No. 
MR4038293, alleging that Respondent's DEA registration should be 
revoked because Respondent is ``without authority to prescribe, 
administer, dispense, or otherwise handle controlled substances in the 
State of Wyoming, the state in which [he is] registered with DEA.'' Id. 
at 2 (citing 21 U.S.C. 824(a)(3)).
    On September 4, 2024, Respondent requested a hearing and filed an 
Answer. On September 11, 2024, the Government filed a Motion for 
Summary Disposition, to which Respondent did not respond. On September 
20, 2024, Administrative Law Judge Paul E. Soeffing (the ALJ) granted 
the Government's Motion for Summary Disposition and recommended the 
revocation of Respondent's registration, finding that because 
Respondent lacks state authority to handle controlled substances in 
Wyoming, the state in which he is registered with DEA, ``there is no 
other fact of consequence for th[e] tribunal to decide.'' Order 
Granting the Government's Motion for Summary Disposition, and 
Recommended Rulings, Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Decision 
of the Administrative Law Judge (RD), at 5-6. Respondent did not file 
exceptions to the RD.
    Having reviewed the entire record, the Agency adopts and hereby 
incorporates by reference the entirety of the ALJ's rulings, findings 
of fact, conclusions of law, and recommended sanction as found in the 
RD and summarizes and expands upon portions thereof herein.

Findings of Fact

    On February 15, 2024, the Wyoming Board of Medicine suspended 
Respondent's Wyoming physician assistant license. RD, at 3.\1\ 
According to Wyoming online records, of which the Agency takes official 
notice, Respondent's Wyoming physician assistant license remains 
suspended.\2\ Wyoming Board of Medicine, Physician and PA License 
Lookup, https://wyomedboard.wyo.gov/consumers/license-lookup (last 
visited date of signature of this Order). Accordingly, the Agency finds 
that Respondent is not currently licensed to practice as a physician 
assistant in Wyoming, the state in which he is registered with DEA.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ See also Government's Submission of Evidence and Motion for 
Summary Disposition (Motion for Summary Disposition), Exhibit 2, 
Attachment C, at 11. The Agency notes that there is some 
inconsistency regarding the naming of the attachments included with 
the Government's Exhibit 2 (the submitted Declaration from a DEA 
Diversion Investigator) when comparing how the attachments are named 
in the Declaration versus the Motion for Summary Disposition itself; 
however, this inconsistency does not appear to be substantive.
    \2\ Under the Administrative Procedure Act, an agency ``may take 
official notice of facts at any stage in a proceeding--even in the 
final decision.'' United States Department of Justice, Attorney 
General's Manual on the Administrative Procedure Act 80 (1947) (Wm. 
W. Gaunt & Sons, Inc., Reprint 1979). Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 556(e), 
``[w]hen an agency decision rests on official notice of a material 
fact not appearing in the evidence in the record, a party is 
entitled, on timely request, to an opportunity to show the 
contrary.'' Accordingly, Respondent may dispute the Agency's finding 
by filing a properly supported motion for reconsideration of 
findings of fact within fifteen calendar days of the date of this 
Order. Any such motion and response shall be filed and served by 
email to the other party and to Office of the Administrator, Drug 
Enforcement Administration at [email protected].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discussion

    Pursuant to 21 U.S.C. 824(a)(3), the Attorney General is authorized 
to suspend or revoke a registration issued under section 823 of the 
Controlled Substances Act (CSA) ``upon a finding that the registrant . 
. . has had his State license or registration suspended . . . [or] 
revoked . . . by competent State authority and is no longer authorized 
by State law to engage in the . . . dispensing of controlled 
substances.'' With respect to a practitioner, DEA has also long held 
that the possession of authority to dispense controlled substances 
under the laws of the state in which a practitioner engages in 
professional practice is a fundamental condition for obtaining and 
maintaining a practitioner's registration. Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 
243, 270 (2006) (``The Attorney General can register a physician to 
dispense controlled substances `if the applicant is authorized to 
dispense . . . controlled substances under the laws of the State in 
which he practices.' . . . The very definition of a `practitioner' 
eligible to prescribe includes physicians `licensed, registered, or 
otherwise permitted, by the United States or the jurisdiction in which 
he practices' to dispense controlled substances. Sec.  802(21).''). The 
Agency has applied these principles consistently. See, e.g., James L. 
Hooper, M.D., 76 FR 71371, 71372 (2011), pet. for rev. denied, 481 F. 
App'x 826 (4th Cir. 2012); Frederick Marsh Blanton, M.D., 43 FR 27616, 
27617 (1978).\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ This rule derives from the text of two provisions of the 
CSA. First, Congress defined the term ``practitioner'' to mean ``a 
physician . . . or other person licensed, registered, or otherwise 
permitted, by . . . the jurisdiction in which he practices . . . , 
to distribute, dispense, . . . [or] administer . . . a controlled 
substance in the course of professional practice.'' 21 U.S.C. 
802(21). Second, in setting the requirements for obtaining a 
practitioner's registration, Congress directed that ``[t]he Attorney 
General shall register practitioners . . . if the applicant is 
authorized to dispense . . . controlled substances under the laws of 
the State in which he practices.'' 21 U.S.C. 823(g)(1). Because 
Congress has clearly mandated that a practitioner possess state 
authority in order to be deemed a practitioner under the CSA, DEA 
has held repeatedly that revocation of a practitioner's registration 
is the appropriate sanction whenever he is no longer authorized to 
dispense controlled substances under the laws of the state in which 
he practices. See, e.g., James L. Hooper, M.D., 76 FR 71371-72; 
Sheran Arden Yeates, M.D., 71 FR 39130, 39131 (2006); Dominick A. 
Ricci, M.D., 58 FR 51104, 51105 (1993); Bobby Watts, M.D., 53 FR 
11919, 11920 (1988); Frederick Marsh Blanton, M.D., 43 FR 27617.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[Page 106588]]

    Under Wyoming law, ``dispense'' means ``to deliver a controlled 
substance to an ultimate user or research subject by or pursuant to the 
lawful order of a practitioner, including the prescribing, 
administering, packaging, labeling, or compounding necessary to prepare 
the substance for that delivery.'' Wyo. Stat. Ann. section 35-7-
1002(a)(vii) (2024). Further, a ``practitioner'' includes ``[a] 
physician . . . or other person licensed, registered or otherwise 
permitted to distribute, dispense, conduct research with respect to or 
administer a controlled substance in the course of professional 
practice or research in th[e] state.'' Id. section 35-7-1002(a)(xx)(A).
    Here, the undisputed evidence in the record is that Respondent 
currently lacks authority to practice as a physician assistant in 
Wyoming. As discussed above, a physician assistant must be a licensed 
practitioner to dispense controlled substances in Wyoming. Thus, 
because Respondent currently lacks authority to practice as a physician 
assistant in Wyoming and, therefore, is not currently authorized to 
handle controlled substances in Wyoming, Respondent is not eligible to 
maintain a DEA registration. RD, at 4-6. Accordingly, the Agency will 
order that Respondent's DEA registration be revoked.

Order

    Pursuant to 28 CFR 0.100(b) and the authority vested in me by 21 
U.S.C. 824(a), I hereby revoke DEA Certificate of Registration No. 
MR4038293 issued to Jason Lee Ray, PA-C. Further, pursuant to 28 CFR 
0.100(b) and the authority vested in me by 21 U.S.C. 823(g)(1), I 
hereby deny any pending applications of Jason Lee Ray, PA-C, to renew 
or modify this registration, as well as any other pending application 
of Jason Lee Ray, PA-C, for additional registration in Wyoming. This 
Order is effective January 29, 2025.

Signing Authority

    This document of the Drug Enforcement Administration was signed on 
December 20, 2024, by Administrator Anne Milgram. That document with 
the original signature and date is maintained by DEA. For 
administrative purposes only, and in compliance with requirements of 
the Office of the Federal Register, the undersigned DEA Federal 
Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to sign and submit the 
document in electronic format for publication, as an official document 
of DEA. This administrative process in no way alters the legal effect 
of this document upon publication in the Federal Register.

Heather Achbach,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, Drug Enforcement Administration.
[FR Doc. 2024-31317 Filed 12-27-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-09-P
```