This bill makes it easier for pharmacies to supply certain prescription drugs directly to doctors and other healthcare providers so they can give those drugs to patients in their offices or clinics, rather than requiring patients to pick up the drugs from the pharmacy themselves.

Right now, pharmacies can only do this for a limited set of controlled substances—mainly for addiction treatment drugs that are injected or implanted. This bill expands that permission to cover any controlled substance in the lower-risk categories (schedules III, IV, or V) that the FDA has approved for doctors to administer or supervise. In practical terms, this could mean your doctor might be able to give you certain medications directly during an appointment instead of sending you to the pharmacy, which could be more convenient and faster for patients who need immediate treatment.

To amend the Controlled Substances Act to authorize pharmacies to deliver certain controlled substances to an administering practitioner in lieu of delivering such substances to the ultimate user, and for other purposes.

Guthrie, Brett

<p>This bill broadens the authority of pharmacies under the Controlled Substances Act to deliver certain controlled substances to health care practitioners for the purpose of administering the substance to a patient.</p><p>Under current law, pharmacies may deliver controlled substances in schedules III, IV, or V to a practitioner if it is for maintenance or detoxification treatment and is administered via injection or implantation, among other requirements. The bill applies this authority to any controlled substance in schedules III, IV, or V that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to be administered by, or under the supervision of, a practitioner.</p>