Fight Illicit Pill Presses Act

Key Points

• The bill requires permanent serial numbers on pill-pressing machines, capsule-filling machines, and their critical parts (punches and dies). Anyone who manufactures, distributes, sells, imports, or exports these machines must engrave or permanently affix a serial number to a nonremovable part.
• The bill expands the definition of "regulated person" under the Controlled Substances Act to include anyone who manufactures, distributes, delivers, sells, imports, or exports these machines or their critical parts. This brings pill press equipment into the same regulatory framework used for controlled substance chemicals.
• It creates new federal crimes for tampering with or removing serial numbers on these machines, and for knowingly possessing or selling a machine whose serial number has been removed or altered. This mirrors how firearms serial number laws work.
• Businesses must report serial numbers to the Attorney General during regulated transactions like sales or imports, creating a traceable paper trail for law enforcement to follow when investigating illicit drug manufacturing operations.
• The Attorney General has 180 days after enactment to issue regulations, including guidance on how to handle machines manufactured before the law takes effect. The serial number requirements only apply to machines made or sold after those regulations go into effect.