South Dakota News: Multiple Schedule II Prescriptions

April 1, 2008 4:38 PM Topics: Controlled substances and Prescriptions

Published in the April 2008 South Dakota State Board of Pharmacy Newsletter

Effective December 19, 2007, Drug Enforcement Administration released a new rule amendment to Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations Part 1306 authorizing prescribers to provide individual patients with multiple prescriptions for the same Schedule II controlled substance (CS).

An individual practitioner may issue multiple prescriptions authorizing the patient to receive a total of up to a 90-day supply of a Schedule II CS provided the following conditions are met:

• Each separate prescription is issued for a legitimate medical purpose by an individual practitioner acting in the usual course of professional practice.
• The individual practitioner provides written instructions on each prescription (other than the first prescription) indicating the earliest date on which a pharmacy may fill each prescription.
• The individual practitioner concludes that providing the patient with multiple prescriptions in this manner does not create an undue risk of diversion or abuse.