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Louisiana News: Drugs of Concern in the Prescription Monitoring Program
Published in the July 2010 Louisiana Board of Pharmacy Newsletter
(10-07-349)
When the 2006 Louisiana Legislature enacted the Prescription Monitoring Program Act, the law directed dispensers of controlled substances and drugs of concern to report their eligible transactions to the program’s database for inquiry and analysis by prescribers and dispensers. When the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy implemented the program in 2009, the Board began with the collection of information for controlled substances in Schedules II through V. The Board is prepared now to add drugs of concern – defined by law to mean drugs other than controlled substances that demonstrate a potential for abuse – to the database. The Board has concluded the required rulemaking process to formally identify drugs of concern, and they include any material, compound, mixture, or preparation containing any quantity of the following substances, including its salts, esters, ethers, isomers, and salts of isomers (whenever the existence of such salts, esters, ethers, isomers, and salts of isomers are possible within the specific chemical designation): (1) butalbital when in combination with at least 325 milligrams of acetaminophen per dosage unit, and (2) tramadol.
Although the final rule was published in the April 20, 2010 edition of the Louisiana Register, the Board has delayed the effective date of the new rule to September 1, 2010. This delay is provided to give pharmacies and other prescribing dispensers additional time to make the necessary adjustments to their dispensing software or other information system components so as to enable the inclusion of drugs of concern in their reports to the monitoring program’s database. In the event the pharmacy or other prescribing dispenser is able to include the information for drugs of concern prior to the effective date, they may do so. All pharmacies and prescribing dispensers shall begin reporting their eligible transactions of drugs of concern to the program’s database no later than September 1, 2010.
