Prescription drugs: prescribers: naloxone hydrochloride and other FDA-approved drugs.

Existing law provides for the regulation of health care practitioners and requires prescription drugs to be ordered and dispensed in accordance with the Pharmacy Law. Existing law authorizes a pharmacist to furnish naloxone hydrochloride in accordance with standardized procedures or protocols developed by both the California State Board of Pharmacy and the Medical Board of California. This bill would require a prescriber, as defined, to offer a prescription for naloxone hydrochloride or another drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the complete or partial reversal of opioid depression to a patient when certain conditions are present and to provide education on overdose prevention and the use of naloxone hydrochloride or another drug to the patient and specified others, except as specified. The bill would subject a prescriber to referral to the board charged with regulating his or her license for the imposition of administrative sanctions, as that board deems appropriate, for violating those provisions.