More than four years ago, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 (“CARA”) was signed into law. CARA, among other things, includes provisions allowing for the partial filling of prescriptions for Schedule II controlled substances. On December 4, 2020, the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) implementing the partial fill provisions of CARA. While DEA does include additional provisions in the NPRM “to address certain regulatory requirements not addressed by the CARA[,]” the agency appears to have neglected to fully address circumstances when a prescription for a Schedule II is partially filled.
DEA Decisions: In the Matter of Wesley Pope, M.D.
An Oklahoma doctor wrote 19 Schedule II controlled substance prescriptions for a patient with low back pain over eight months without thoroughly documenting the patient’s history, confronting the patient over aberrant drug tests, or talking to other doctors who were prescribing the patient controlled substances. The Chief Administrative Law Judge felt the doctor should be granted a new registration, but placed on probation for one year. Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg disagreed. He reviewed the case and concluded that DEA proved that the doctor knew the patient was abusing or diverting the drugs and prescribed anyway. Dr. Wesley Pope’s application for a new DEA registration was denied as inconsistent with the public interest.