In prevention of making the opioid crisis worse, the State of Florida passed new legislation effective July 1, 2017. The key previsions of the law include:

  1.  Prescribers are now limited to writing only a 3 day supply of acute pain medication.
  2.  An emergency 7 day “acute pain exception” is allowed in certain situations where greater pain may be expected (i.e. trauma, extensive oral surgery, etc.), and must have a documented reason for their acute medical or dental condition and a lack of alternative treatment.
  3. Prescribers must check the patient’s past medication history via the PDMP Database (E-Forsce) software that discloses medication received by the patient from all Florida pharmacies PRIOR to prescribing an RX.  The PDMP (E-Forsce) database must be checked and documented before prescribing any schedule II, III, IV and V controlled substances for patients 16 years and older.
  4. All health care practitioners who are authorized to prescribe controlled substances and are registered with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency are mandated to complete a 2 hour continuing education course by January 31, 2019.
  5. Failure to follow the Florida House Bill 21 by a prescribing healthcare provider are subject to disciplinary action by their respective State Board, and actions pursuant to section 456.073 of the Florida Statues punishable to a second degree felony.

This new law in effect is to deter health care providers from over prescribing addictive medication. It is also intended to inform the public that a health care provider can legally “just say no” to a patient seeking or “Doctor hopping” to accumulate addictive medications for personal or resale use.

It is hoped that acute pre or post operative pain would be controlled using properly dosed non-steroidal anti inflammatory medications (i.e. aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.) and acetaminophen (i.e. Tylenol) instead of or limiting the use of an opioid medication.  It is also expected that patients properly dispose of any unused opioid medication ASAP to prevent the Rx from falling into “wrong hands” (i.e. teenagers/young adults, resellers, etc.). Pharmacists can help patients dispose of unused medication.