APhA Policy Manual

1. APhA advocates that pharmacy personnel should not work while subject to physical or mental impairment due to substances that might adversely affect their abilities to function properly in their professional capacities.
2. APhA supports establishment of counseling, treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation programs for pharmacy personnel who are subject to physical or mental impairment due to substances that might adversely affect their abilities to function in their professional capacities.
3. APhA encourages employers to provide support to pharmacy personnel in need of medical leave to address mental health and substance use disorders.
4. APhA encourages employers to provide pharmacy personnel time away from work that facilitates appropriate care for mental health or substance use disorders without retaliation.
5. APhA advocates for timely referrals to health professional recovery programs when available, even in instances where disciplinary actions may be considered.
6. APhA encourages employers to actively support pharmacy personnel in recovery for substance use disorder by offering employment opportunities and non-dispensing roles as they reintegrate into the workforce.

1. APhA supports education for pharmacists and student pharmacists to address issues of pain management, palliative care, appropriate use of opioid reversal agents in opioid-associated emergencies, drug diversion, and substance use disorders.
2. APhA supports recognition of pharmacists as the health care providers who must exercise professional judgment in the assessment of a patient’s conditions to fulfill corresponding responsibility for the use of controlled substances and other medications with the potential for misuse and/or diversion.
3. APhA supports pharmacists’ access to and use of prescription monitoring programs to identify and prevent drug misuse and/or diversion.
4. APhA supports the development and implementation of state and federal laws, regulations, and policies that permit pharmacists to independently prescribe opioid reversal agents to prevent deaths due to opioid-associated emergencies.
5. APhA supports the pharmacist's role in selecting appropriate therapy and dosing and initiating and providing education about the proper use of opioid reversal agents to prevent deaths due to opioid-associated emergencies.

APhA urges pharmacists to expand patient access to secure, convenient, and environmentally responsible drug disposal options, in accordance with the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, by implementing disposal programs they deem appropriate for their individual practice sites, patient care settings, and business models in an effort to reduce the amount of dispensed but unused prescription drug product available for diversion and misuse.

1. APhA supports the use of evidence-based medicine as first-line treatment for patients with opioid use disorder, including health care professionals in and out of the workplace, for as long as needed to treat their disease.
2. APhA encourages pharmacies to maintain an inventory of medications used in treatment of opioid use disorder (MOUD), to ensure access for patients.
3. APhA encourages pharmacists and payers to ensure patients have equitable access to, and coverage for, at least one medication from each class of medications used in the treatment of opioid use disorder.

1. APhA supports laws, regulations, policies and practices that increase the availability of naloxone.
2. APhA supports the availability of naloxone as both a prescription and non-prescription medication.
3. APhA encourages pharmacists and payers to ensure equitable access to and affordability of at least one naloxone formulation regardless of prescription status.
4. APhA encourages payers to provide fair reimbursement to dispensers of naloxone.

1. APhA advocates for nationwide integration and uniformity of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) that incorporate federal, state, and territory databases for the purpose of providing health care professionals with accurate and real-time information to assist in clinical decision making when providing patient care services related to controlled substances.
2. APhA supports pharmacist involvement in the development of uniform standards for an integrated nationwide prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) that includes the definition of authorized registered users, documentation, reporting requirements, system response time, security of information, minimum reporting data sets, and standard transaction format.
3. APhA supports mandatory prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) enrollment by all health care providers, mandatory reporting by all those who dispense controlled substances, and appropriate system query by registrants during the patient care process related to controlled substances.
4. APhA advocates for the development of seamless workflow integration systems that would enable consistent use of a nationwide prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) by registrants to facilitate prospective drug review as part of the patient care process related to controlled substances.
5. APhA advocates for continuous, sustainable federal funding sources for practitioners and system operators to utilize and maintain a standardized integrated and real-time nationwide prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP).
6. APhA supports the use of interprofessional advisory boards that include pharmacists to coordinate collaborative efforts for (a) compiling, analyzing, and using prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) data trends to identify misuse of controlled substances and/or fraud; (b) providing focused provider education and patient referral to treatment programs; and (c) supporting research activities on the impact of PDMPs.
7. APhA supports education and training for registrants about a nationwide prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) to ensure proper data integrity, use, and confidentiality.

1. APhA supports access to third-party (non-patient recipient) prescriptions for opioid reversal agents that are independently prescribed by pharmacists.
2. APhA affirms that third-party (non-patient-recipient) prescriptions should be reimbursed by public and private payers.

1. APhA supports laws, regulations, and policies, and private sector efforts that include pharmacists’ input and that will balance patients’need for access to medications for legitimate medical purposes with the need to prevent the diversion and misuse of medications.
2. APhA supports consumer sales limits of nonprescription drug products, such as methamphetamine precursors, that may be illegally converted into drugs for illicit use.
3. APhA encourages education of all personnel involved in the distribution chain of nonprescription products so they understand the potential for certain products, such as methamphetamine precursors, to be illegally converted into drugs for illicit use. APhA supports comprehensive substance use disorder education, prevention, treatment, and recovery programs.
4. APhA supports public and private initiatives to fund treatment and prevention of substance use disorders.
5. APhA supports stringent enforcement of criminal laws against individuals who engage in drug trafficking.

APhA supports laws, regulations, and policies that would allow pharmacies to transfer prescriptions for controlled substances for the purposes of an initial fill.

APhA supports expanding access to medications indicated for opioid use disorders (MOUDs) and other substance use disorders, including but not limited to pharmacist-administered injection services for treatment and maintenance of substance use disorders that are based on a valid prescription.

APhA advocates for pharmacists’ independent prescriptive authority of medications indicated for opioid use disorders (MOUDs) and other substance use disorders to expand patient access to treatment.

APhA supports and encourages a cooperative effort among state and national pharmacy associations, state boards of pharmacy, and state legislative bodies to authorize, develop, implement and maintain mechanisms for the comprehensive funding of state recovery programs for pharmacists, student pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

1. APhA supports the continued classification of heroin as a Schedule I controlled substance.
2. APhA supports research by qualified investigators under the Investigational New Drug (IND) process to explore the potential medicinal uses of Schedule I controlled substances and their analogues.
3. APhA supports comprehensive education to maximize the proper use of approved analgesic drugs for treating patients with chronic pain.
4. APhA recognizes that pharmacists receiving controlled substance prescription orders used for analgesia have a responsibility to ensure that the medication has been prescribed for a legitimate medical use and that patients achieve the intended therapeutic outcomes
5. APhA advocates that pharmacists play an important role on the patient care team providing pain control and management.

APhA urges the Drug Enforcement Administration, in processing employment waiver requests, to defer to the decisions of state boards of pharmacy related to the licensure of pharmacists suffering from alcohol and other chemical dependencies.

APhA endorses the concept of the "Drug–Free Workplace" and recommends that, where drug testing is performed in the workplace, it be conducted in conjunction with an employee assistance program.