Hills Pharmacy, LLC; Decision and Order

Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration [Docket No. 15-4] On October 8, 2014, the Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Diversion Control, Drug Enforcement Administration, issued an Order to Show Cause to Hills Pharmacy, LLC (hereinafter, Hills or Respondent), which proposed the revocation of its DEA Certificate of Registration FH0772257, pursuant to which it is authorized to dispense controlled substances in schedules II through V as a retail pharmacy, at the registered location of 7730 W. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa, Florida. ALJ Ex. 1, at 1. As grounds for the proposed action (which also includes the denial of any pending applications), the Show Cause Order alleged that Respondent's “continued registration is inconsistent with the public interest, as that term is defined in 21 U.S.C. 823(f) .” Id.; see also 21 U.S.C. 824(a)(4) . More specifically, the Show Cause Order alleged that Respondent's “pharmacists repeatedly failed to exercise their corresponding responsibility to ensure that controlled substances they dispensed were dispensed pursuant to prescriptions issued for legitimate medical purposes by practitioners acting within the usual course of their professional practice” and that its “pharmacists ignored readily identifiable red flags that [the] controlled substances prescribed were being diverted and dispensed despite unresolved red flags.” Id. (citing 21 CFR 1306.04(a) ; Holiday CVS, L.L.C., d/b/a CVS Pharmacy Nos…