Action | Waiver for e-prescribing of an opioid |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 11/13/2020 |
As a student and an advocate for mental health and substance abuse treatment, I find the proposed rule to be useful in the fight against opioid abuse. Substance abuse is a multi-faceted and complex issue that requires both mental health treatment and emotional support, as well as denial or limited access to a controlled substance. The proposed rule to restrict prescriptions to only e-prescriptions (except in limited circumstances) will help to limit unmonitored access to controlled substances, and hopefully, therefore, mitigate their abuse as patients will no longer be able to obtain paper prescription pads and write themselves prescriptions. As I mentioned, limiting access to substances only treats part of the problem, but I agree that this proposed rule change is a useful addition to the Virginia Code and will hopefully keep Virginians a bit more safe from opioid abuse.