Coming at a time when heroin and opioid overdoses are gripping the nation, a new Colorado law allows pharmacies to sell naloxone without a prescription. A number of states are allowing measures like Colorado’s to combat increasing overdose death rates associated with prescription opioid and heroin abuse. NABP’s AWARXE® Prescription Drug Safety Program is working to […]

People who abuse prescription opioid painkillers are 40 times more likely to abuse heroin, reports the July edition of CDC Vital Signs. Researchers from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and FDA looked at the factors behind America’s heroin epidemic and found that prescription opioid abuse is the strongest risk factor for a heroin […]

Illinois legislators passed a bill to create a pilot program that will give pharmacies the option of placing locking devices on some painkiller prescriptions to ensure only the patient has access to the medication. The bill, which is with Governor Bruce Rauner, calls on the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to run the […]

During the first five months of 2015, Indiana has had 68 pharmacy robberies, the most out of any other state, reports Drug Topics. The online publication, geared toward pharmacists, used Drug Enforcement Administration data to compile a report of the 20 states hit hardest by pharmacy robberies. After Indiana follows Wisconsin, with 32 robberies so […]

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has signed into law a bill that will allow pharmacists to provide flu vaccinations to people age nine or older. House Bill 182 removes a stipulation from Pennsylvania law that limited administration of immunizations for school-age children to physicians only. The bill is intended to make it easier for children to […]

Jaime Guerrero, a former medical physician with offices in Louisville, KY, and Jeffersonville, IN, has been indicted for knowingly distributing and dispensing Schedule II and III controlled substances to patients without a legitimate medical purpose. Further, Guerrero is charged with dispensing such medications to five patients who died as a result, according to a Drug […]

Abuse-deterrent formulations of commonly abused prescription medications can sometimes still be misused cautions a new report. In fact, some experts have become concerned that the protective measures taken in abuse-deterrent formulations are “misunderstood and could mislead both users and prescribers into thinking that the underlying medications are less addictive,” an article in The New York […]

After pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to dispense prescription drugs without a prescription, Naresh Kumar Chintala has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. Chintala worked for an India-based company that marketed drugs to customers in the US through telemarketing. Chintala also made false claims that the drugs […]