North Carolina STOP Act Looks to Address the Opioid Crisis

North Carolina’s Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act (STOP Act) sets limits on certain ‘targeted controlled substance” prescriptions for acute and post surgical pain and seeks to address the opioid abuse epidemic in North Carolina by changing the way certain controlled substances are prescribed.

According the the STOP Act, practitioners, including physician assistants and nurse practitioners, who have first consulted with their supervising physicians, could only write initial prescriptions for a 5-day supply of targeted controlled substances for patients suffering from acute pain and a 7-day supply for those who just had surgery. Additional prescriptions for the targeted controlled substances would then be handled on an individual basis. The new limits do not apply to patients with chronic pain, nursing home patients or hospice patients.

Additionally, the STOP Act requires the prescribers and pharmacists report all prescriptions to North Carolina’s controlled substance database to ensure medical professionals can track which patients are obtaining the opioids and reduce doctor shopping.