Final Rule on Issuance of Multiple Prescriptions for Schedule II Controlled Substances

ASIPP has received notification and is pleased to announce that as per DEA Administrator Karen Tandy's promise, the notice regarding the Multiple Schedule II Rule, has now been prepared and will be published in the Federal Register on Nov. 19, 2007. The rule entitled, "Issuance of Multiple prescriptions for Schedule II Controlled Substance," will take effect on Dec. 9, 2007.

The final rule amends DEA's previous regulation to allow practitioners to provide individual patients with multiple prescriptions for a specific schedule II controlled substance, written on the same date, to be filled sequentially.

The new rule allows physicians to write three separate prescriptions with staggered fill dates. Patients can still be given the equivalent of a 90-day prescription for schedule II controlled substances when medically appropriate.

Federal Register Notice

Tandy's Sept. 6, 2006 presentation "Dispensing Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain"