BILL NUMBER: AB 1535	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Bloom

                        JANUARY 21, 2014

   An act to add Section 4052.01 to the Business and Professions
Code, relating to pharmacists.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1535, as introduced, Bloom. Pharmacists: naloxone
hydrochloride.
   Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and
regulation of pharmacists by the California State Board of Pharmacy.
Existing law, generally, authorizes a pharmacist to dispense or
furnish drugs only pursuant to a valid prescription. Existing law
authorizes a pharmacist to furnish emergency contraceptives and
hormonal contraceptives pursuant to standardized procedures or
protocols developed and approved by both the board and the Medical
Board of California, as specified, or developed by the pharmacist and
an authorized prescriber. Existing law also authorizes a pharmacist
to furnish nicotine replacement products pursuant to standardized
procedures or protocols developed and approved by both the board and
the Medical Board of California, as specified. Existing law
authorizes a licensed health care provider who is permitted to
prescribe an opioid antagonist and is acting with reasonable care to
prescribe and dispense or distribute an opioid antagonist for the
treatment of an opioid overdose to a person at risk of an
opioid-related overdose or a family member, friend, or other person
in a position to assist a person at risk of an opioid-related
overdose.
   This bill would authorize a pharmacist to furnish naloxone
hydrochloride in accordance with standardized procedures or protocols
developed by the pharmacist and an authorized prescriber or
developed and approved by both the board and the Medical Board of
California. The bill would require a pharmacist to complete a
training program on the use of opioid antagonists prior to performing
this procedure.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 4052.01 is added to the Business and
Professions Code, to read:
   4052.01.  (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a
pharmacist may furnish naloxone hydrochloride in accordance with
either of the following:
   (1) Standardized procedures or protocols developed by the
pharmacist and an authorized prescriber who is acting within his or
her scope of practice.
   (2) Standardized procedures or protocols developed and approved by
both the board and the Medical Board of California.
   (b) Prior to performing a procedure authorized under this section,
a pharmacist shall complete a training program on the use of opioid
antagonists that consists of at least one hour of approved continuing
education on the use of naloxone hydrochloride.