Iowa judge ask pharmacy board to look at marijuana

(AP, kttc.com Des Moines) – A Polk County judge says a state pharmacy board must consider whether marijuana has accepted medical uses.

Thursday’s ruling Judge Joel Novak doesn’t legalize medical marijuana in Iowa, but it requires the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to consider whether it’s properly classified as a Schedule I substance. Read more

Judge: Morning-after pill should be available to 17 year olds

(Drug Topics) A federal judge has ruled that 17 year olds should be able to get the morning-after pill without a prescription, and ordered the Food and Drug Administration to consider expanding access all women.

Before Monday's decision, the FDA had agreed to make the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B available without a prescription only to women 18 and older and only from a pharmacy counter. The Center for Reproductive Rights sued the government in Brooklyn Federal Court, charging the FDA put politics before science in drafting the rules.

In his written decision, Judge Edward Korman noted there appeared to be “political considerations, delays and implausible justifications” in the decision-making process. “The record shows that FDA officials and staff both agreed that 17-year-olds can use Plan B safely without a prescription,” Korman wrote.

Korman said the FDA's justification for this age restriction, that pharmacists would be unable to enforce the prescription requirement if the cutoff were age 17 rather than 18, lacks credibility.

“While the FDA is free, on remand, to exercise its expertise and discretion regarding the proper disposition of the citizen’s petition, no useful purpose would be served by continuing to deprive 17 year olds access to Plan B without a prescription,” Korman said.

A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office, which represented the FDA, told various media outlets the ruling is being reviewed.

Proposed Pharmacy Bill by Idaho House Committee Targets Moral Issues

(KPVI, Idaho. By: Tammy Scardino) The state of Idaho is now one step closer to passing legislation that would put into writing an unspoken understanding that pharmacists have the right to refuse filling a prescription. What makes this a hot topic is the specific type of medication that gets denied. Read more

Nevada Supreme Court considers pharmacy liability issue

(drug topics)In a case involving Wal-Mart and other drug retailers, the Nevada Supreme Court will decide whether pharmacies can be held legally responsible for death and injuries to non-customer third parties. A lower court dismissed pharmacists, Wal-Mart, and various other large drug retailers from a case involving a woman who caused a death while under the influence of prescription drugs. The decision was appealed. Read more

New bill would exempt pharmacists from DME accreditation rules

(Drug Store News)ALEXANDRIA, Va. – In a bipartisan move welcomed by retail pharmacy advocates, U.S. Senators John Tester, D-Mont., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., have introduced
legislation that would eliminate burdensome restrictions on the sale of durable
medical equipment by pharmacies. Read more

Pharmacy tech compromise to be sought in S.C. bill

(Gina Smith – TheState.com, South Carolina)  A House bill to require two-thirds of the state’s pharmacy technicians to meet new education and training requirements has stalled.

Bill proponents say more training and education are needed to prevent prescription and medicine errors.

“In two weeks time, I went from working, folding linens in a linen store to making IVs at a pharmacy,” said Natasha Nicols, who has since become a pharmacist. She’s now president-elect of the S.C. Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which backed the bill. Read more