Rachel Jackson, P.A.; Decision and Order, 13198-13199 [2025-04752]

Agencies

• Drug Enforcement Administration
• Department of Justice

[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 53 (Thursday, March 20, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13198-13199]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-04752]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Drug Enforcement Administration


Rachel Jackson, P.A.; Decision and Order

    On October 1, 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA or 
Government) issued an Order to Show Cause (OSC) to Rachel Jackson, 
P.A., of Sabattus, Maine (Registrant). Request for Final Agency Action 
(RFAA), Exhibit (RFAAX) 4, at 1, 4. The OSC proposed the revocation of 
Registrant's Certificate of Registration No. MG5136723, alleging that 
Registrant's registration should be revoked because Registrant is 
``currently without authority to prescribe, administer, dispense, or 
otherwise handle controlled substances in the State of Maine, the state 
in which [she is] registered with DEA.'' Id. at 1-2 (citing 21 U.S.C. 
824(a)(3)).\1\
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    \1\ According to Agency records, Registrant's registration 
expired on December 31, 2024. The fact that a registrant allows her 
registration to expire during the pendency of an OSC does not impact 
the Agency's jurisdiction or prerogative under the Controlled 
Substances Act (CSA) to adjudicate the OSC to finality. Jeffrey D. 
Olsen, M.D., 84 FR 68474, 68476-79 (2019).
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    The OSC notified Registrant of her right to file a written request 
for hearing, and that if she failed to file such a request, she would 
be deemed to have waived her right to a hearing and be in default. Id. 
at 2 (citing 21 CFR 1301.43). Here, Registrant did not request a 
hearing. RFAA, at 3.\2\ ``A default, unless excused, shall be deemed to 
constitute a waiver of the registrant's/applicant's right to a hearing 
and an admission of the factual allegations of the [OSC].'' 21 CFR 
1301.43(e).
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    \2\ Based on the Government's submissions in its RFAA dated 
August 20, 2024, the Agency finds that service of the OSC on 
Registrant was adequate. Specifically, the Declaration from a DEA 
Diversion Investigator (DI) indicates that on November 8, 2023, 
Registrant was successfully served a copy of the OSC via email to an 
email address associated with Registrant. RFAAX 1, at 2; Mohammed S. 
Aljanaby, M.D., 82 FR 34552, 34552 (2017) (finding that service by 
email satisfies due process where the email is not returned as 
undeliverable and other methods have been unsuccessful). As noted in 
the DI's Declaration, on October 5, 2023, the DI and other DEA 
officials attempted in-person service of the OSC to an address 
associated with Registrant, but the service was unsuccessful. RFAAX 
1, at 1-2. On October 10, 2023, the DI provided her contact 
information to Registrant via email to Registrant's aforementioned 
email address. Id. at 2. On October 12, 2023, the DI called all five 
phone numbers listed in the information database for Registrant, as 
well as Registrant's spouse. Id. Regarding the phone numbers that 
were still in service, the DI was unable to reach Registrant and 
left a voicemail for Registrant with her contact information. Id. 
Finally, on November 9, 2023, the DI mailed copies of the OSC via 
certified and first-class mail to two different addresses associated 
with Registrant. Id. On November 20, 2023, the DI received 
confirmation of receipt of the certified mail, and upon search of 
the USPS mail tracking system, the DI confirmed that Registrant 
received and signed for the certified mail for both addresses. Id.; 
RFAAX 3. In sum, the Agency finds that Registrant was successfully 
served the OSC by email and the DI's efforts to serve Registrant by 
other means were `` `reasonably calculated, under all the 
circumstances, to apprise [Registrant] of the pendency of the 
action.' '' Jones v. Flowers, 547 U.S. 220, 226 (2006) (quoting 
Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 314 
(1950)). Therefore, due process notice requirements have been 
satisfied.
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    Further, ``[i]n the event that a registrant . . . is deemed to be 
in default . . . DEA may then file a request for final agency action 
with the Administrator, along with a record to support its request. In 
such circumstances, the Administrator may enter a default final order 
pursuant to [21 CFR] Sec.  1316.67.'' Id. section 1301.43(f)(1). Here, 
the Government has requested final agency action based on Registrant's 
default pursuant to 21 CFR 1301.43(c), (f), 1301.46. RFAA, at 1; see 
also 21 CFR 1316.67.

Findings of Fact

    The Agency finds that, in light of Registrant's default, the 
factual allegations in the OSC are admitted. According to the OSC, on 
June 9, 2023, Registrant requested that the Maine Board of Licensure in 
Medicine permit her to voluntarily surrender her Maine physician 
assistant license. RFAAX 4, at 2. Effective July 11, 2023, the Maine 
Board of Licensure in Medicine granted Registrant's request. Id. 
According to Maine online records, of which the Agency takes official 
notice, Registrant's Maine physician assistant license is inactive and 
listed under a status of ``Voluntary Surrender.'' \3\ Government of 
Maine Regulatory Licensing & Permitting Search, https://www.pfr.maine.gov/ALMSOnline/ALMSQuery/Welcome.aspx (last visited date 
of signature of this Order). Accordingly, the Agency finds that 
Registrant is not licensed to practice as a physician assistant in 
Maine, the state in which she is registered with DEA.
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    \3\ 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, Registrant 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 the DEA Office of the Administrator, 
Drug Enforcement Administration at [email protected].
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Discussion

    Pursuant to 21 U.S.C. 824(a)(3), the Attorney General is authorized 
to suspend or revoke a registration issued under 21 U.S.C. 823 ``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).\4\
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    \4\ 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.

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[[Page 13199]]

    According to Maine statute, ``Unless licensed by the [Board of 
Licensure in Medicine], an individual may not practice medicine or 
surgery or a branch of medicine or surgery . . . within the State by 
diagnosing, relieving in any degree or curing . . . a human disease, 
ailment, defect or complaint, whether physical or mental . . . by 
attendance or by advice, or by prescribing or furnishing a drug, 
medicine, appliance, manipulation, method or a therapeutic agent 
whatsoever or in any other manner unless otherwise provided by statutes 
of this State.'' Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 32, section 3270 (2024). Further, 
Maine statute states that, ``[a] physician assistant may not render 
medical services until the physician assistant has applied for and 
obtained from either the Board of Licensure in Medicine or the Board of 
Osteopathic Licensure: . . . [a] license, which must be renewed 
biennially with the board that issued the initial license.'' Id. 
section 3270-E(1)(A).
    Here, the undisputed evidence in the record is that Registrant 
lacks authority to practice as a physician assistant in Maine because 
she voluntarily surrendered her Maine physician assistant license to 
the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine and her license is now 
inactive. As discussed above, an individual must be licensed by the 
Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine to handle controlled substances in 
Maine. Thus, because Registrant lacks authority to practice as a 
physician assistant in Maine and, therefore, is not authorized to 
handle controlled substances in Maine, Registrant is not eligible to 
maintain a DEA registration. Accordingly, the Agency will order that 
Registrant'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. 
MG5136723 issued to Rachel Jackson, P.A. 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 Rachel Jackson, P.A., to renew 
or modify this registration, as well as any other pending application 
of Rachel Jackson, P.A., for additional registration in Maine. This 
Order is effective April 21, 2025.

Signing Authority

    This document of the Drug Enforcement Administration was signed on 
March 13, 2025, by Acting Administrator Derek Maltz. 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. 2025-04752 Filed 3-19-25; 8:45 am]
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