Drug Abuse Control and the Pharmacist's Role in the Legislative Decision-Making Process

Abstract

A random sampling of Florida community pharmacy practitioners was taken to determine their preferences for proposed additional restrictions on the prescribing and dispensing of prescriptions for certain Schedule II controlled substances. In addition, they were asked the degree to which they would favor or disfavor: (A) enactment of a state law which would make invalid any prescription for a Schedule II substance after seven days from date of issue, and (B) several alternative proposals for restricting the prescribing and dispensing of certain classes of specifically named Schedule II substances such as a 48-hour waiting period, color coding of prescription blanks, numerical serialization, purchaser identification, etc., either alone or in combination.

Of the 440 community pharmacists mailed questionnaires, 210 (47.7%) responded. Comments and suggestions provided by the respondents varied greatly according to their perceptions as to the necessity or desirability for further encumbering the processing of Schedule II drugs.