How Does the DEA Classify Ketamine?

How Does the DEA Classify Ketamine?

The DEA classifies ketamine as a Schedule III controlled substance. That sounds mild. “Moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” The same category as testosterone and Tylenol with codeine. But this classification masks something most people never consider: ketamine produces dissociative hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, and K-holes that users describe as “near-death” and “terrifying.” People assume Schedule III means safe. It doesn’t.

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to explain exactly what this DEA classification means – not the sanitized version, but what actually happens when providers, patients, or individuals cross the lines that Schedule III creates. Todd Spodek has represented clients facing ketamine-related charges and DEA investigations. Understanding how this classification really works could change everything about your situation.

If you’re a provider facing a DEA audit or investigation related to ketamine, or an individual facing possession or distribution charges, call us at 212-300-5196. The stakes are higher than the Schedule III label suggests.

The Schedule III Classification – What It Really Means

The Controlled Substances Act created five schedules. Schedule I is the most restrictive – drugs with “no currently accepted medical use” and high abuse potential. Heroin. LSD. Marijuana (federally). Schedule V is the least restrictive.

Schedule III sits in the middle. The official definition: “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence” and “abuse potential less than Schedule I and II but more than Schedule IV.”

Thats the language. Heres the reality.

Ketamine has less than 10% of the potency of pure PCP. That sounds reassuring until you understand that PCP is Schedule II – meaning ketamine’s more dangerous cousin has STRICTER federal controls. The scheduling seems backwards. The “safer” drug has lighter regulation.

The DEA classifies ketamine specifically under 21 C.F.R. §1308.13(c)(7). It shares Schedule III with anabolic steroids, testosterone, and products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dose. Medical use accepted. Abuse potential acknowledged. But the experiential intensity of ketamine – the dissociation, the hallucinations, the psychological disruption – doesnt fit neatly with its regulatory neighbors.

Think about what this means in practice. Your testosterone prescription and your ketamine infusion sit in the same federal category. The goverment treats a hormone replacement and a dissociative hallucinogen with identical regulatory weight. One makes you feel normal. The other can induce experiences users describe as leaving there bodys entirely. Same schedule.

The comparison with PCP reveals something important about how scheduling actualy works. PCP – phencyclidine – is Schedule II. Higher restrictions. More paperwork. Stricter controls. Yet ketamine was literaly created as a “safer, shorter-acting version of PCP.” The drug designed to replace something dangerous ended up with lighter regulation then the thing it replaced. Nobody rationalized this afterwards. It just is.

How Ketamine Got Scheduled – And Why That Matters

Heres something most people dont realize. Ketamine wasnt scheduled becuase doctors discovered it was dangerous. It was scheduled becuase of rave culture.

Ketamine was used as an injectable anesthetic in the US since the 1970s. For decades, it was an unscheduled prescription drug. Doctors used it. Veterinarians used it. Nobody worried much about recreational abuse.

Then came the 1990s. Club drugs. “Special K” at dance parties. Emergency room visits from kids experiencing dissociative episodes. The DEA saw a trend and reacted.

In August 1999, ketamine became a Schedule III non-narcotic substance. The scheduling wasnt driven by new medical research about its dangers. It was driven by what kids were doing on weekends. A serious medical anesthetic became a controlled substance becuase of dance culture – not pharmacology.

By 2020, 56 countries had reported ketamine misuse to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The rave culture problem that prompted 1999 scheduling has gone global.

This history matters becuase it reveals how drug scheduling actualy works. Its not a pure scientific ranking of danger. Its a response to cultural moments, enforcement priorities, and political pressures. The Schedule III classification reflects 1999 concerns about clubs – not 2024 realities about ketamine therapy.

The Matthew Perry Case Changed Everything

If you want to understand what the DEA classification really means in practice, look at what happened to Matthew Perry. Five people are facing federal prison. One of them is dead.

Matthew Perry was recieving legitimate ketamine therapy from a licensed provider for depression. This is legal. Millions of Americans do this. But Perry developed tolerance. He needed more. When legitimate providers couldnt or wouldnt prescribe enough, he turned to the black market.

Heres were the lines blurred. Perry was a patient recieving legal treatment. He was also a customer buying illegal drugs. The therapy designed to help him became the pathway to the drug that killed him.

Dr. Salvador Plasencia saw a profit opportunity. He charged Perry $57,000 for ketamine that cost aproximately $15 per vial. Think about that. A physician charged 3,800 times the actual cost of a medication. Thats not therapy. Thats exploitation.

Plasencia pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. But heres the thing – he wasnt the main supplier. Jasveen Sangha, dubbed “the Ketamine Queen,” faces up to 65 years in prison for her role. Erik Fleming, a middleman, faces up to 25 years. Perry’s own assistant, who injected the fatal doses, is awaiting sentencing.

The cascade: Perry seeks ketamine therapy → Treatment begins → Tolerance develops → Legitimate provider wont prescribe enough → Black market involvement → Doctor sees profit opportunity → Multiple middlemen involved → Fatal overdose → 5 people facing federal prison → One dead → Multi-year federal prosecution → National headlines → DEA scrutiny on entire ketamine industry intensifies.

At Spodek Law Group, we see cases like this – obviosly not with famous actors, but with the same pattern. Provider crosses a line. Patient becomes dependent. Regulatory system collapses on everyone involved.

How DEA Registration Actually Works

Most people think the ketamine clinic gives you ketamine. It dosent.

Heres the hidden machinery that controls everything. A clinic cannot legally dispense controlled substances to patients. Only the PROVIDER can dispense. The clinic can order the drugs. The clinic can handle compliance. The clinic can assist with everything except the actual dispensing act. That must be provider-to-patient.

Why does this matter? Becuase when something goes wrong – when theres an overdose, a death, a diversion problem – the legal liability flows diferently depending on who actualy dispensed. The clinic-cant-dispense distinction protects some parties and exposes others.

OK so heres how the registration system actualy works. Every provider who dispenses ketamine must be DEA-registered. But registration isnt just once. A provider must register at EACH LOCATION were they dispense. Each registration takes months to process. Each costs money and requires seperate compliance. Open a second office? You need another DEA registration. The system treats one doctor at two locations as if there two seperate entities.

Then theres the black bag trap. The DEA allows a “black bag exception” – providers can travel to unregistered locations to dispense ketamine on an “as-needed and random basis.” Sounds flexible. Sounds accomodating.

But read the fine print. If you go to the same location “several times a week or month,” you must register that location. Concierge ketamine providers who thought they were following the rules? There potentialy in violation. Telehealth providers sending ketamine to patients homes and visiting them regulary? There potentialy in violation. The “exception” becomes a trap for anyone with a buisness model built on regular patient contact.

The telemedicine situation is especialy concerning. The DEA extended COVID-era flexabilities through December 2025. This allows providers to prescribe Schedule III substances like ketamine without ever meeting patients in person. Entire companys built there buisness models around remote ketamine prescribing. Patients recieve lozenges in the mail from doctors theyve never physicaly met.

Heres the problem. Those flexabilities are temporary. What happens January 1, 2026? The rules are unclear. The guidance is murky. Providers who built practices around telemedicine ketamine are operating in a regulatory gray zone that could close without warning. The patients depending on that care could loose access overnight.

And theres another trap hiding in plain sight. If your a telehealth provider and you start visiting your patients regularly – maybe becuase you want to provide better care, maybe becuase they develop complications that need in-person assessment – you may have just triggered the multi-location registration requirement. Your trying to practice good medicine. The DEA sees a compliance violation. Good intentions dont matter when the audit letter arrives.

Most illegal ketamine dosent come from overseas labs or dark web dealers. It comes from veterinary clinics. This is one of those facts that sounds counterintuitive until you think about it. Veterinarians use ketamine constantly for animal anesthesia. Its a staple of veterinary practice. And veterinary clinics often have looser security then medical practices.

The diversion pathway usualy works like this. Someone with access to veterinary ketamine – an employee, a supplier, sometimes even the veterinarian themselves – diverts vials from legitimate inventory. Those vials end up on the street or in the hands of people who sell to patients desperate for more ketamine then there legitimate providers will prescribe. The system designed to keep animals healthy becomes the supply chain for human abuse.

What Nobody Tells Patients About Ketamine

The FDA has NOT approved ketamine for treatment of ANY psychiatric disorder. Not depression. Not anxiety. Not PTSD. Not any of it.

Let that sink in. The entire ketamine therapy industry – every clinic treating depression with ketamine infusions, every provider prescribing at-home lozenges – is operating off-label. The FDA specificaly warns that “compounded ketamine is experimental and not FDA-approved.”

Every ketamine clinic treating your depression is doing something the FDA has never blessed.

Thats not automaticaly wrong. Off-label prescribing is legal and common in medicine. Doctors do it all the time. But patients deserve to know the regulatory reality there walking into. Many clinics dont make this crystal clear during informed consent.

Heres another uncomfortable truth. More then 20% of ketamine users experiance urinary tract symptoms. Bladder problems. Urinary frequency. Damage to the urinary system. This isnt rare. Its one in five.

And it gets worse. Long-term ketamine use causes brain damage. This isnt speculation or scare tactics – MRI imaging shows reduction in both white and grey matter. CT scans show atrophy. The drug being prescribed to treat your depression may be causing permanant neurological damage. How many clinics mention THIS during the intake appointment?

Spodek Law Group beleives informed clients make better decisions. Were putting this information on our website becuase most people have no idea these risks exist. This isnt about scaring you away from treatment. Its about making sure you understand what your getting into.

The Penalties Most Providers Dont Understand

Schedule III sounds less serious then Schedule II. People assume lighter penalties.

Heres the inversion that destroys providers. First offense for unlawful distribution of ketamine: up to 10 years federal prison and $500,000 fine. A Texas pharmacy owner got 14 years for conspiracy and money laundering related to ketamine distribution. Dr. Plasencia got 30 months. Jasveen Sangha faces 65 years.

“Lower schedule” dosent mean lower consequences.

The real cascade looks like this. Provider prescribes ketamine without proper documentation → DEA audit → Violations discovered → Registration revoked → Cannot prescribe ANY controlled substances → Pain meds gone. ADHD meds gone. Anxiety meds gone. One ketamine problem ends your entire ability to practice medicine as you knew it.

Practice gutted → Patients with legitimate needs loose access → Reputation destroyed → State medical board investigates → License suspended → Criminal referral possible → Years of rebuilding if ever.

Thats not hypothetical. Thats what happens. Ive seen variations of this pattern play out. The provider thought they were helping patients. The DEA thought they were running a pill mill. By the time everyone lawyered up, the practice was already destroyed.

The Matthew Perry case ilustrates the ultimate cascade. Five defendants. One dead patient. Prison sentences ranging from 30 months to potentialy 65 years. And beyond the criminal penalties, consider what happened to there careers. Dr. Plasencia surrendered his California medical license in September 2025. Even if he serves his sentence and gets out, he cant practice medicine. The 30 months in prison is just the begining of the punishment.

For providers, the lesson is brutal. Your not just risking your DEA registration. Your risking your entire career. Your medical license. Your ability to practice the profession you trained years to enter. The ketamine-related violation triggers a cascade that dosent stop at federal prison. It continues through state medical board proceedings, insurance company exclusions, hospital priviledge revocations. By the time its over, your life as a physician is finished.

What This Means For You

The DEA registration that enables your practice is also the single point of failure that can destroy it. Loose registration over ketamine violations and you loose the ability to prescribe ANYTHING controlled. Pain management. Psychiatry. Addiction medicine. One ketamine problem ripples through your entire prescribing authority.

If your a provider, the regulatory landscape is shifting fast. DEA scrutiny on ketamine has intensified since the Matthew Perry case. Telehealth flexabilities extended through December 2025 may not continue. The “black bag exception” your buisness model depends on may be narrower then you think.

If your a patient, understand that your treatment exists in a regulatory gray area. The FDA hasnt approved what your recieving. The long-term risks include brain changes most clinics dont mention. This dosent mean dont pursue treatment – it means understand the full picture before you decide.

If your facing charges or investigation, understand that Schedule III classification dosent mean the goverment takes these cases lightly. The penalties are real. The consequences are serious. And the cascade from investigation to destroyed career happens faster then most people expect.

The DEA has made ketamine enforcement a priority since the Matthew Perry case. There watching prescribing patterns. There auditing clinics. There looking for the next Dr. Plasencia – the provider who crossed lines and can be made into an example. You dont want to be that example.

Heres what most providers and patients dont understand until its to late. The investigation dosent announce itself. There are warning signs – audit letters, patient interviews, questions from the medical board – but many people dismiss them. They think “Im doing nothing wrong” or “this is just routine.” By the time they realize the investigation is serious, theyve already made statements and produced documents that will be used against them.

The time to get legal help isnt when you recieve the indictment. Its when you get the first audit letter. Its when you hear that patients are being contacted. Its when something feels off about how the DEA is engaging with your practice. Early intervention can sometimes resolve issues before they become criminal. Late intervention means damage control at best.

For patients, the calculus is diferent but equally important. If your recieving ketamine therapy, make sure you understand exactly what your getting into. Ask your provider about the off-label status. Ask about the long-term risks. Ask about what happens if the telemedicine rules change. The more you understand, the better decisions you can make about your own care.

And if your facing charges – wheather for possession, distribution, or anything related to ketamine – understand that these cases are winnable. The goverment has to prove there case. They have to establish every element of the offense. Defenses exist. Strategies exist. But you need representation that understands both the medical context and the federal criminal system.

Spodek Law Group is located at 233 Broadway in the Woolworth Building in Manhattan. We handle federal drug defense cases nationwide, including ketamine-related charges and DEA investigations of medical providers.

This isnt about scaring you. Its about making sure you understand the regulatory landscape your operating in. The Schedule III classification sounds routine. The consequences are anything but.

We put this information on our website becuase most people walking into ketamine clinics – or running them – have no idea about the regulatory framework there operating within. The providers dont always explain it. The marketing certainly dosent. The Schedule III label sounds mild. The reality is far more complicated and far more dangerous then the classification suggests.

Todd Spodek has represented clients navigating exactly these issues. When to cooperate. When to fight. How to protect your registration, your license, and your freedom. The decisions you make in the first days of an investigation can determine wheather you rebuild or wheather your done.

Call us at 212-300-5196. The consultation is free. The mistake of waiting isnt.

Your future may depend on understanding how seriously the federal goverment takes ketamine classification – regardless of were it sits on the schedule. Schedule III dosent mean minor. It dosent mean safe. It dosent mean the penalties are light. It means the goverment has decided this substance requires control, and anyone who violates those controls faces real consequences.