Staff Report with Final Results: Texas State Board of Pharmacy Page: 9
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ISSUE 1
Texas Lacks Key Tools Needed to Ensure Safe Dispensing of
Dangerous, Highly Addictive Drugs to Patients.
Background
the Texas State Board of Pharmacy plays an important role in protecting the public from improper
dispensing of prescription drugs by setting standards for the practice of pharmacy, including the
dispensing of drugs to patients. By their very nature, all prescription drugs are considered dangerous,
but a special class known as controlled substances carry greater potential for abuse and, therefore, are
subject to greater regulatory control. The textbox,
Controlled Substances, provides more information
Controlled Substances on this class of drugs. While the decision to
What are controlled substances? distribute a prescription drug necessarily starts
" Highly addictive medications with increased potential with a prescriber such as a doctor, pharmacists
for abuse - addiction can occur from taking just one have an important gate-keeping role. State law
valid prescription' and standards of professional practice describe this
" Commonly prescribed for pain relief or sedation duty as a pharmacist's "corresponding responsibility"
" Examples include opioid drugs such as Vicodin to ensure a prescription is valid before dispensing
(hydrocodone) and OxyContin (oxycodone) and medications to a patient, and authorize a pharmacist
benzodiazepine drugs such as Xanax (alprazolam) to refuse to dispense suspicious prescriptions.2
What additional regulations govern controlled Over the last decade, dispensing of painkillers and
substances? other highly addictive medications has skyrocketed,
" The federal Drug Enforcement Agency registers and these drugs are now some of the most prescribed
and monitors prescribers, pharmacists, and drug in the country.3 While often needed for legitimate
distributors of controlled substances medical purposes, the euphoric effects of medications
" In Texas, prescriptions for particularly addictive such as Vicodin and OxyContin have contributed
controlled substances must be written on registered, to a rise in associated problems such as addiction,
secure prescription pads
overdoses, and illicit activity such as doctor-shopping
" The Texas Medical Practice Act defines four classes of and diversion of drugs for illegal sale on the street.4
controlled substances carrying higher risk and places
additional requirements on pain management clinics In 2013, nearly 23,000 people died in the United
that prescribe these drugs (opioids, benzodiazepines, States from overdoses related to either opioid pain
barbiturates, and carisoprodol) medications or sedative drugs.5 Drug overdose
" The state's Prescription Monitoring Program requires deaths from prescription painkillers and sedatives
all Texas pharmacies to enter information about have more than quadrupled since the late 1990s.6
controlled substance prescriptions into a statewide These statistics have led many public health experts
database within seven days of dispensing and policymakers to declare an epidemic facing the
country relating to prescription drug abuse.7
The state's primary method for keeping track of prescriptions for these highly addictive medications is
the Prescription Monitoring Program, a statewide database collecting information from pharmacies on
every controlled substance dispensed in the state. Statute allows prescribers, pharmacists, and related
regulatory agencies to check the database. The database provides prescribers and dispensers informationon the patient's controlled substance prescription history that can help inform prescribing and dispensing
Texas State Board of Pharmacy Staff Report with Final Results
Issue 19
Sunset Advisory Commission
June 2017
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Ogle, Steven; Schiff, Tamara; Hartley, Cee & Teleki, Katharine. Staff Report with Final Results: Texas State Board of Pharmacy, report, June 2017; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1033475/m1/33/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.