Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005: Fee for Self- Certification for Regulated Sellers of Scheduled Listed Chemical Products 
2007-11-29
DEA-2007-0113-0004
05:00:00
https://api.regulations.gov/v4/comments/DEA-2007-0113-0004
Erica
Ross
I am concerned about the impact of this regulation on small businesses thatdistribute legal drugs containing small amounts of these chemicals.  Much of theregulatory material is devoted to discussing the fact that the fee ? which willbe $16 initially, and adjusted thereafter ? is rather low, and thus will notadversely impact small businesses.  This rationale is troublesome, however, forseveral reasons.  First, because each location ? including each location amobile vendor visits ? requires an additional self-certification, thisregulation could get very expensive very quickly for mobile vendors (who,potentially, may be among the smallest businesses).  In addition, as the DEAadmits, the fee may increase greatly depending on the ?utilization? of theadjudicatory procedures in coming years.  Furthermore, the CFR materials do notmake any clear predictions as to how the fee wavier for those already registeredwith the DEA will affect the fee in future years ? if many fees are waived, thefee for paying self-certifiers can be expected to increase.Moreover, I am concerned by the impact on small businesses since the fees arenot graduated based on the volume of sale.  While the CFR materials assume theimpact will be small - $16 and an estimated three hours in regulation time,totaling $100 per year ? I?m not sure this adequately represents the risk. Small businesses will decide whether to continue selling these drugs based onwhether the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs.  Because I think that theCFR materials undervalue the costs to small businesses of training, making spacebehind the counter, and now paying the fee, I am concerned that small sellerswill cease distributing these products, adversely affecting their customers. Since these small businesses may be more likely to exist (and predominate) insmall towns and rural areas, this regulation may adversely anddisproportionately affect those populations.  While the DEA argues that it isunsure whether it has the statutory authority to obtain the informationnecessary from businesses to institute a waiver for smaller ones, some type ofvoluntary information-sharing mechanism seems like an obvious but unexploredpotential solution.  