§ 21-28-2.01 - Authority to control – Registration requirements and procedures.
SECTION 21-28-2.01
§ 21-28-2.01 Authority to control –Registration requirements and procedures. – (a) The director of health shall control all substances enumerated in §21-28-2.08 or may by motion or on the petition of any interested party pursuantto the procedures of chapter 35 of title 42, the Administrative Procedures Act,add, reschedule, or delete a substance as a controlled substance. In makingthis determination, the director of health shall consider, but not be limitedto the following:
(i) ( Its actual or relative potential for abuse;
(ii) Scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect ifknown;
(iii) State of current scientific knowledge regarding thesubstance;
(iv) Its history and current pattern of abuse;
(v) The scope, duration, and significance of abuse;
(vi) What, if any, risk there is to the public health;
(vii) Its psychic or physiological dependence liability;
(viii) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of asubstance already controlled under this chapter.
(2) After considering the factors in subdivision (1) of thissection the director of health shall make findings with respect to thesefactors and shall issue an order controlling the substance if it is found thatthe substance has potential for abuse.
(b) If the director of health designates a substance as animmediate precursor, substances which are precursors of the controlledprecursor shall not be subject to control solely because they are precursors ofthe controlled precursor.
(c) If any substance is designated, rescheduled, or deletedas a controlled substance under federal law and notice of that action is givento the director of health, he or she shall similarly control the substanceunder this chapter after the expiration of sixty (60) days from publication inthe federal register of a final order designating a substance as a controlledsubstance or rescheduling or deleting a substance, unless within that sixty(60) day period, the director of health objects to inclusion, rescheduling, ordeletion. In that case, the director of health shall publish the reasons forobjection and afford all interested parties an opportunity to be heard. At theconclusion of the hearing, the director of health shall publish his or herdecision, which shall be final unless altered by statute. The director ofhealth shall publish and file his or her decision with the secretary of state.Upon publication of objection to inclusion, rescheduling, or deletion underthis chapter by the director of health, control under this chapter is stayeduntil the director of health publishes his or her decision.
(d) The following persons need not register and may lawfullypossess controlled substances under this chapter:
(1) An agent or employee of any registered manufacturer,distributor, or dispenser of any controlled substance if he or she is acting inthe usual course of his or her business or employment;
(2) A common or contract carrier or warehouse operator, or anemployee of a carrier or warehouse operator, whose possession of any controlledsubstance is in the usual course of business or employment;
(3) An ultimate user or a person in possession of anycontrolled substance pursuant to a lawful order of a practitioner or in lawfulpossession of a schedule V substance.
(e) The director of health may waive by rule the requirementfor registration of certain manufacturers, distributors, or dispensers if he orshe finds it consistent with the public health and safety.
(f) A separate registration is required at each place ofbusiness where the applicant manufactures, distributes, or dispenses controlledsubstances. A separate registration is required at each place of professionalpractice at which a practitioner stores controlled substances. A practitionermay prescribe and administer controlled substances, upon registering with thedirector of health at the applicant's principal place of professional practice.
(g) The director of health or his or her authorized agent mayinspect the establishment of a registrant or applicant for registration inaccordance with his or her regulations.