Regulatory Practice>Controlled Substances Practice Test

At a suburban community pharmacy, a 58-year-old man asks to 'refill' his oxycodone 10 mg tablets for chronic knee pain. He presents his pill bottle from a prescription written 30 days ago for 60 tablets with instructions 1 tablet every 6 hours as needed. The label shows 0 refills authorized. He has no new prescription, says his physician is hard to reach, and offers to pay cash if that will help. PDMP shows no other fills. The pharmacist verifies the original prescription was for a Schedule II medication and that no additional prescriptions have been received.

A 47-year-old man calls a community pharmacy on Friday evening requesting a refill of his oxycodone 10 mg tablets. His profile shows a paper prescription written 25 days ago for 30 tablets with zero refills. He says he will travel tomorrow and asks if the pharmacist can activate one refill now or transfer a refill to another chain location at his destination. The prescriber's office is closed until Monday. The patient denies any changes in therapy and insists he has always gotten "at least one refill" on pain medicine. The pharmacist must decide how to proceed under federal law.