The drugs must be kept under lock and key, their use carefully recorded, the DEA said. The drug-fighting agency also tracks researchers' drug purchases, but it rarely conducts surprise checks because it lacks sufficient staff. Just 400 agents monitor drug manufacturers, distributors, analytical laboratories, pharmacies and doctors. Thus, they ordinarily don't check a researcher unless they receive a report of a problem. Between 1,500 and 2,000 of the institute's grant recipients employ street drugs in their research.
Researchers undergo rigorous federal screening before they receive government grants.
Research proposals are carefully scrutinized, and experiments are monitored by institutional review boards. Researchers say they must follow strict rules about storage and account for the drugs used in experiments. But it has happened in my field. Dr. Keith Kajander, who ran a University of Minnesota dental school lab on pain research, fatally overdosed on cocaine in April shortly after he used federal grant money to buy a fresh supply from a California distributor. His DEA registration allowed him to buy the cocaine.