My humble 2 cents:

These reactionary regulations seem unnecessary in their entirety and just vague enough to cause problems for honest vets. 1) Prescribe the appropriate medication in 2) the appropriate dose 3) for the appropriate amount of time: it seems like this goes without saying and should be under the "practice good medicine act." The human opiate epidemic is catastrophic and severe but is unlikely to be driven by a well intentioned veterinarian dispensing 0.02 Mg/kg buprenorphine to a cat for 8 (more than 7) days. While I understand the intent of the regulation, the fact that such regulations are considered and enacted brings supposed blame on the veterinary community for the opiate problem. The problem is not caused by veterinarians and there should be no burden placed on our profession as a reaction to a human medicine problem. The number of veterinarians prescribing month long doses of oxycontin and other highly human addictive opiates in zero. The opiate problem in VA does not lie with our honest profession and we should be left out of the blame game as our board should not knee jerk more reactionary regulations.