WEST virginia legislature
2020 regular session
Introduced
House Bill 4354
By Delegates Worrell, Summers and Wilson
[Introduced January 15, 2020; Referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §60A-2-201 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to drugs.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 2. STANDARDS AND SCHEDULES.
§60A-2-201. Authority of Board of Pharmacy; recommendations to Legislature.
(a) The state Board
of Pharmacy shall administer the provisions of this chapter. It shall also, on
the first day of each regular legislative session, recommend to the Legislature
which substances should be added to or deleted from the schedules of controlled
substances contained in this article or reschedule therein. The state
Board of Pharmacy shall also have the authority between regular legislative
sessions, on an emergency basis, to add to or delete from the schedules of
controlled substances contained in this article or reschedule such substances
based upon the recommendations and approval of the federal food, drug and
cosmetic agency, and shall report such actions on the first day of the regular
legislative session immediately following said actions.
In making any such
recommendation regarding a substance, the state Board of Pharmacy shall
consider the following factors:
(1) The actual or relative potential for abuse;
(2) The scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known;
(3) The state of current scientific knowledge regarding the substance;
(4) The history and current pattern of abuse;
(5) The scope, duration and significance of abuse;
(6) The potential of the substance to produce psychic or physiological dependence liability; and
(7) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a substance already controlled under this article.
(b) After considering the
factors enumerated in subsection (a), the state Board of Pharmacy shall
make findings with respect to the substance under consideration. If it finds
that any substance not already controlled under any schedule has a potential
for abuse, it shall recommend to the Legislature that the substance be added to
the appropriate schedule. If it finds that any substance already controlled
under any schedule should be rescheduled or deleted, it shall so recommend to
the Legislature.
(c) If the state
Board of Pharmacy designates a substance as an immediate precursor, substances
which are precursors of the controlled precursor shall not be subject to
control solely because they are precursors of the controlled precursor.
(d) If any substance is
designated, rescheduled or deleted as a controlled substance under federal laws
and notice thereof is given to the state Board of Pharmacy, the board
shall recommend similar control of such substance to the Legislature,
specifically stating that such recommendation is based on federal action and
the reasons why the federal government deemed such action necessary and proper.
(e) The authority vested in the board by subsection (a) of this section shall not extend to distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages or tobacco as those terms are defined or used in other chapters of this code nor to any nonnarcotic substance if such substance may under the “Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act” and the law of this state lawfully be sold over the counter without a prescription.
(f) Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary, the sale, wholesale, distribution or prescribing of a cannabidiol or nabiximol in a product approved by the Food and Drug Administration is permitted and shall be placed on the schedule or descheduled as provided for by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to add nabiximols to the permitted list of distributed and prescribed drugs, if scheduled or descheduled by the Food and Drug Administration.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.