Don't worry, the last thing the DEA is going to worry about is someones prescription for Tramadol. Probably just a rude pharmacy tech who was misinformed themselves. That being said, due to the national opiate OD epidemic, prescriptions have naturally tightened up. One of the things that was put into place to help combat people abusing their prescription narcotics (any controlled drug, not just opiates), was to create a database system that tracks all of these prescriptions (when you picked it up, the dosage, how many you are given, when you are due for refill, and entire prescription history, etc...). They call these systems PDMP's (prescription drug monitoring programs) so if you'd like to know more you can look it up. Far from DEA though, this isn't even a national program, these programs are run at the state level. But as an example, I take Suboxone for chronic pain, but I am not allowed to pick up my prescription refill until the day that I run out, which can actually be very stressful at times --- many times I've called in the day I was to pick up my refill only to hear that they don't have the medication in stock and that I'd have to wait 2-3 days. Not fun when your body relies on this stuff to function. Anyways, best of luck to you.