Federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), have amped up their investigations into the drug ketamine in recent years, likely in reaction to some high-profile overdose deaths. However, the increased scrutiny is also probably a part of the fallout from the opioid epidemic, in which it became clear that the healthcare system could be and was being abused.

What this means for doctors, hospitals, and particularly veterinarians who use ketamine as a part of their business is that the odds of them facing a ketamine investigation have skyrocketed.

Ketamine has been used to treat mood disorders as a mood stabilizing medication, mental health disorders such as a major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and in recent clinical trials has been implemented to treat depression, specifically treatment-resistant depression, where depressed patients were not seeing results with an oral antidepressant or electroconvulsive therapy. It has also been implemented as pain management, and racemic ketamine has been used as a dissociative anesthetic.

Because of its medicinal value but also the potential for abuse and addiction, ketamine is listed as a Schedule III drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act’s regulations (21 C.F.R. § 1308.13).

Here are four things that Dr. Nick Oberheiden, a leading healthcare defense lawyer and founding partner of the national law firm Oberheiden P.C., thinks that you should know about the situation.

1. You Need to Act Quickly to Protect Yourself

DEA or other law enforcement investigations related to ketamine do not just happen for no reason. Gone are the days where federal agencies perform random audits to ensure compliance. If you learn that you or your healthcare business are the subject of an investigation involving ketamine, then you should know that investigators have already found something that has caught their eye and convinced them that they need to look more into it.

Formal investigations are not the beginning of a legal case: They are massive escalations of cases that have already been progressing for some time, now.

However, this is still the juncture in the case where the evidence against you is at its weakest. A strong and appropriate challenge to it, at this moment, is the time when it is most likely to succeed.

The best thing for individuals and businesses to do is to call their lawyer or hire a defense team if they are not represented.

2. An Internal Investigation Can Open Your Eyes to Your Risk Levels

Aside from getting legal counsel, two of the best things to do as soon as you learn of a DEA investigation are to figure out all that you can about the cause for the investigation, and conduct an internal investigation to see what the investigation will likely find.

Taking these measures quickly can mean the difference between an informed response to investigators and an uninformed one. This is a huge difference because different circumstances call for drastically different defense postures.

In many cases, the details that you learn about the investigation reveal that a federal agency has uncovered what appears to be evidence of misconduct related to your use of ketamine, while your internal investigation finds context surrounding those details that show that the investigators’ concerns are not warranted – they think they have found evidence of a crime, but it is clear that they are mistaken. In these, being up front with them and disclosing the context that they are missing can persuade them to not investigate and close the case, saving you the stress and inconvenience of the inspection.

In other cases, the internal investigation reveals that there are serious causes for concern. Depending on the circumstances, though, there may still be several courses of action that you can take to mitigate the fallout.

3. Drug Diversion of Ketamine is a Criminal Offense

Regulators and federal law enforcement seem to have learned one big thing from the opioid epidemic: Drug users and drug dealers do not all operate on the streets. So-called “white collar drug crimes” involve drug users who need prescription pills and healthcare providers who are willing to give them what they want, often for some benefit or incentive from a third party. In the opioid epidemic, this was often some perk from the companies making and selling the painkillers.

These perks for making prescriptions are less prevalent in the ketamine context, so drug diversion of ketamine is not as ubiquitous. However, when it does happen, it can lead to some serious criminal drug charges – often for drug possession with intent to sell or even drug trafficking. Recall that ketamine is classified as a Schedule III drug by the federal Controlled Substances Act’s regulations (21 C.F.R. § 1308.13). Convictions for unlawfully selling these controlled substances are often felonies that can carry decades in prison.

As Dr. Nick Oberheiden, a healthcare defense lawyer at Oberheiden P.C. who has handled numerous drug diversion cases, says, “Healthcare providers who handle ketamine are often surprised that, if they are not careful, their prescription practices can amount to the unlawful provision of illegal drugs. This can happen if they knowingly prescribe ketamine that is not medically necessary or falsifying symptoms to justify a ketamine prescription. Unfortunately, providers can also face a drug possession charge if they are abusing ketamine and using their prescription powers to feed their habit.”

4. You Have Rights During the Investigation

Importantly, you do have legal rights that you can invoke during the investigation into your healthcare company’s use of ketamine.

One of the most important to enforce during a ketamine investigation is the one that protects you from an all-encompassing investigation. Law enforcement officers doing the investigation have a particular scope to what they are looking for, but they are known for stretching it if they find evidence that might not be covered by it. Not letting them do this during their investigation into you or your business’ practices is essential. It can avoid the devastating situation where a ketamine investigation spawns another investigation into other business practices at your healthcare company. If the scope of the investigation is not strictly enforced, it is not unheard of for multiple new legal threats to result, drastically increasing your exposure to serious liability.

This often requires a detailed understanding of the scope of the investigation and a close monitoring of the investigators while they work to ensure that they do not cross a line.