On May 29, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a $56,889,663 global resolution with Stericycle, Inc. — a major medical and pharmaceutical waste company — covering both criminal and civil investigations into the company’s handling of controlled-substance pharmaceutical waste. The settlement, announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, is one of the largest enforcement actions ever brought against a DEA-registered pharmaceutical waste operator.

For hospital pharmacy directors, compliance officers, and DEA registrants, the resolution is worth reading not as a story about one company, but as a public, government-sourced map of where chain-of-custody risk actually lives in the traditional collect-transport-store-destroy waste model. Read More >