The US Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) recently reversed most of the changes to its registration renewal process that were previously slated to become effective January 1, 2017.

Indeed, the only change that persists from its earlier notice is that, starting January 2017, the DEA will no longer send its second renewal notification by mail. Instead, an electronic reminder to renew will be sent to the email address associated with the DEA registration.

Otherwise, the DEA has elected to retain its current policy and procedures with respect to renewal and reinstatement of registration. Specifically, (i) if a renewal application is submitted in a timely manner prior to expiration, the registrant may continue operations, authorized by the registration, beyond the expiration date until final action is taken on the application; (ii) a reinstatement of an expired registration will be allowed for one calendar month after the expiration date (if the registration is not renewed within that calendar month, an application for a new DEA registration will be required); and (iii) regardless of whether a registration is reinstated within the calendar month after expiration, US federal law prohibits the handling of controlled substances or List 1 chemicals for any period of time under an expired registration. The DEA warned that the registration is not valid during the grace period until it is reinstated by the agency.