Who has to complete the DEA 8-hour training?
The requirement comes from the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, signed December 29, 2022. The DEA’s letter to registrants describes it as “a new one-time, eight-hour training requirement for all Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)-registered practitioners,” and the only group it excludes is practitioners who are solely veterinarians.
For nurses the line is the DEA registration, not the license. A nurse practitioner, CNM, CRNA or CNS who holds a DEA registration to prescribe or administer controlled substances has to complete it. A staff RN or LPN works under the prescriber’s registration and does not hold one, so the requirement does not apply to them, though the courses still count as ordinary contact hours for license renewal.
When is it due, and is it really one time?
Since June 27, 2023, the online DEA registration form asks you to check a box confirming you have completed the training. The deadline is your next scheduled DEA registration submission on or after that date, whether that is a first registration or a renewal. Most APRNs who renewed after mid-2023 have already attested.
It is one time. The DEA letter says the affirmation “will not be a part of future registration renewals,” and the statute, 21 U.S.C. 823(m)(2)(A), says the Attorney General shall not require any qualified practitioner to complete the training more than once. If a course or an employer tells you it has to be repeated every renewal, that is not a federal rule.
What counts toward the eight hours?
The DEA is generous about format and timing. The training does not have to happen in one sitting: the letter says it “can be cumulative across multiple sessions that equal eight hours.” Classroom courses, seminars at professional meetings and virtual courses all count.
Past training counts too. Training on treating and managing patients with opioid or other substance use disorders counts even if you took it before the law was signed, and the DEA letter states plainly that past DATA-waiver training counts. If you completed the old buprenorphine waiver course, you may already be done.
The training has to come from an approved organization. The DEA letter lists groups that include the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the American Nurses Credentialing Center, which covers any ANCC-accredited provider. A law signed December 1, 2025 added more groups for non-physician practitioners, including the American Psychiatric Nurses Association and the American Academy of Nursing, and applied the change back to December 29, 2022. SAMHSA’s MATE Act page lists the additions.
Do new graduates or certified NPs get out of it?
There is a graduate route, and the statute’s wording is the one to rely on. For advanced practice nurses, it covers graduates in good standing of an accredited school of advanced practice nursing during the five years before their first registration or renewal, whose program included at least eight hours of training on opioid and substance use disorders, including all FDA-approved medications for them. The DEA’s 2023 letter phrases the window differently, as five years before June 27, 2023. If you are relying on your program, keep the curriculum documentation.
The board-certification route, certification in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry, is written in the current statute for physicians. The 2023 DEA letter describes it as open to all practitioners, but the statute is narrower, so an NP should not treat it as an exemption.
What are the free ways to finish the eight hours?
Two free options state on their own pages that they meet the DEA requirement, and both were checked on September 30, 2026.
| Course | Hours and credit | Cost | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8-Hour SUD 101 Training (AAAP, formerly PCSS-MOUD) | 8 on-demand courses, 9.25 nursing credits | Free | The page says it fulfills the DEA 8-hour requirement and issues a final certificate after all 8 courses. AAAP is jointly accredited, including by the ANCC. Available on demand until April 1, 2029. |
| 8-Hour Training: Pain, Opioids and Effective Patient Care (PCSS) | Any 8 of 14 modules | Free | PCSS lists it among the courses that satisfy the DEA requirement, all at no cost. |
PCSS-MOUD’s federal funding ended on September 29, 2026. The American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, which ran it, says it has adapted the courses to stay available permanently, which is why the bundle now lives on AAAP’s training site.
For other free opioid and substance use courses, including CDC’s modules and APNA’s, our free CEU directory lists each one with its hours and accreditor. Hours from any approved provider add up, but only the two courses above say on their own pages that they satisfy the DEA requirement by themselves.
Does it count toward my state’s APRN requirements?
The federal statute leaves room for it: it says nothing in the section prevents a practitioner from using the training to meet a state’s registration requirements. Whether your board counts it toward its own controlled substance or pharmacology hours is the board’s call, and many APRN boards set separate topic hours every renewal. Pick your state in the free CEU directory to see its APRN topic requirements and sources, or open your state’s page under licensure by state.
Pro tip: Keep the final certificate in the same folder as your DEA registration confirmation. The attestation is a checkbox, so the certificate is the only record you will have if you are ever asked.
No. It applies to practitioners who hold a DEA registration, which in nursing means NPs and other APRNs who prescribe or administer controlled substances. Staff RNs and LPNs do not hold DEA registrations. The courses still count as ordinary contact hours toward license renewal.
Yes. You attest to it once, at your first DEA registration or renewal on or after June 27, 2023. The DEA says the affirmation will not be part of future renewals, and 21 U.S.C. 823(m)(2)(A) bars requiring it more than once.
Yes. The DEA’s letter to registrants says past DATA-waiver training counts toward the 8-hour requirement, as does past training on treating opioid or other substance use disorders from an approved organization.
AAAP’s 8-Hour SUD 101 Training, formerly run by PCSS-MOUD, is free, awards 9.25 nursing credits and says it fulfills the DEA requirement. PCSS’s 8-hour Pain, Opioids and Effective Patient Care option, any 8 of 14 modules, is also free.
Yes. The DEA says the training can be cumulative across multiple sessions that add up to eight hours, in a classroom, at a professional meeting or online, as long as each comes from an approved organization such as an ANCC-accredited provider or AANP.