When you go to a pharmacy to get a scrip filled at least here in N.Y. You just need to say someones name and they give you thier packet of drugs without any ID or really any requirement as far as i know that you even know that person. Several parts to this question actually. First if you do pick up someones prescription, and say you get pulled over by the police and searched, are you guilty of posessing controlled drugs that arnt technically in your name? If so, then why dont the pharmacies have some sort of control over who pickes up what drug for who?
Also does getting “permission” from the person whos prescription was filled somehow make it legal to have?
Well, if you’re picking up someone’s medicine, presumably you have the drug, but also the supplemental paperwork they give you (drug interactions, how to take it, etc.), as well as a receipt and maybe a bag from the pharmacy.
I’d say that a cop who saw that would put 2 and 2 together and realize that perhaps you are telling the truth. Especially when the medicine is something mundane like an asthma inhaler or penicillin or something. (meaning, you’re conveniently picking up someone else’s OxyContin?? Yeah, right…)
I think the entire situation and body of evidence would be quite clear so you would not be in trouble for it.
Scout1222 Your reply assumes that in fact “getting it for a friend” is a legal defence. Is it?
Well, yes. A “controlled” substance isn’t illegal per se, but as its designation implies: its distribution is strictly regulated. If you were to pick up a morphine prescription for a friend and were questioned about it, the cop could certainly call the pharmacy and determine if the disbursement was through a valid prescription, and then they could call your friend’s doctor and confirm that the medical condition requiring morphine exists. A single unopened pill bottle isn’t likely to warrant such effort, but if you had five or six hundred pills on you, they will certainly take a close look at you.
When medicinal marijauna is approved in some states, I’m sure we’ll have a lot of cases like this. “But officer, I was just picking it up for my friend, and the only reason I drove through the front window of the 7-11 was because I had the munchies real bad, man…”
Scout1222 & Jonpluc, it is illegal to possess controlled substances without a prescription IN YOUR NAME, period. It is also illegal to dispense controlled substances without a presciption and identification of the patient. No pharmacist should dispense controlled substances to anyone but the patient on the prescription form. On this matter, as with all prescription medicines, state law is more complete and more applicable than federal law, but it’s usually only the controlled substances that will get you in trouble. How much trouble depends on the Schedule of the drug and the apparent intent of the possessor.
Well, there are legal differences between prescription-only substances and controlled substances, for one thing. Drugs that aren’t available over the counter but don’t have abuse potential aren’t illegal for you to possess AFAIK. They may or may not be legal for you to take without the proper prescriptions and stuff, and it is illegal to buy or sell them without the paperwork, but possession in and of itself isn’t worth making a law against.
Scheduled drugs, more commonly called controlled substances, are a different matter. This is stuff with abuse potential, and is classified by how much abuse potential it has. It’s also much more tightly regulated than say, penicillin. Lots of places require photo ID when picking up these medications, and in some instances the prescription forms.
I would say as long as you have legitimate paperwork on the stuff and the whole prescription is there (as opposed to some of the pills being gone already), it’s no big deal. They might call your friend to check your story, but you’ve done nothing illegal that I know of. If it were illegal for you to pick up someone else’s prescriptions, the pharmacy wouldn’t give it to you for liability reasons.
In California, when we had to pick up morphine for my terminally ill mother, we were given a much different prescription form. It had several copies to it and looked much different than the kind a doctor scribbles out for you.
However, the pharmacy still gave us the medication. It wasn’t exactly practical for my mom to go and get it herself.
We flushed down the toilet the extra pills.
In my experience, pharmacies (in Illinois, at least) will not dispense Schedule II drugs (such as Percocet) without seeing a valid ID both when the script is dropped off and pickedup, but will dispense Schedule III (such as Vicodin) without checking ID.
Nametag;
It is hard to believe that what you say is true. The little sticker on the bottle says it is illegal for anyone to take the substance but lots of people who need narcotics can’t go to the pharmacy because they are in too much pain, or immobile, or whatever. Surely the law would allow the medication to be transported to them. And what about the pharmacy clerk. She has no special training or legal standing and yet takes the medicine from the little bins and transports them to the counter to give to the customer. Or volunteers in hospitals who deliver medications to the patients.
You must not be any fun at parties. 
According to the NYS Penal law, unlawful possession is defined by the Public Health Law which contains this exemption:
"1. The provisions of this article restricting the
possession and control of controlled substances and official New York
state prescription forms shall not apply:
…
c) to temporary incidental possession by employees or **agents of
persons lawfully entitled to possession **, or by persons whose possession
is for the purpose of aiding public officers in performing their
official duties." (emphasis added)
I expect every state has such an exemption, which would also cover the pharmacy asssitant.
As a related anecdote, I was running errands with someone who had to go pick up some meds for their mother-in-law. I don’t know quite what she was getting–considering the situation, probably morphine or something similar–and she had a hard time picking it up for her without a lot of paperwork. This might have been complicated because the mother-in-law’s legal residence was in another state than where she is being taken care of by the family, and I believe power of attorney rested in the other part of the family in the state of legal residence. The medicince was obtained, but not without jumping through some legal hoops.
I take CII Adderall. Once or twice I’ve been asked to verify my address and that’s it.
BobT I assume you are talking about the triplicate forms. Those are used for all scheduled drugs (at least CII and I assume CIII). That way there’s a copy for you/pharmacy, a copy for the doctor and one for the DEA.
Yep, the triplicate form. Everytime we brought one of those in, the pharmacist took a very long look at it before dispensing the medication. If any part of it was filled out wrong, we had to go find a doctor to correct it.
I don’t know what type of controlled substance morphine is, but I imagine it’s under pretty tight control.
According to:
http://www.tsbp.state.tx.us/consumer/broch2.htm
Morphine is a schedule II drug.
This link also lists out some schedule III-V drugs as well.
I have all the control that I choose to exercise. Most of the time, I don’t have a problem with people picking up scripts for other people. If, however, a problem begins, I assure you I can make it stop by either requiring ID or requiring that you fill elsewhere.
miatachris, R.Ph.
My clerks and techs are my support personnel acting under my orders and authority.
miatachris, R.Ph.
You’re right that controlled substances are the ones that are more tightly regulated. Possession of a prescription-only drug without a prescription is, in and of itself, a crime, though.
My experience is as follows:
After the birth of my son (via CSection), my cousin went to the pharmacy to have my scrip for Percoset filled in my behalf. They filled it and didn’t give him any drama about it, either (which was good, I was in too much discomfort to walk too far). I think he gave his ID and his phone number. I suppose they called the doc, but no one called me.
However,
A friend of mine used to drive a cab. One of his fares left a new, unopened prescription (for what, I dunno) in its original bag with the recipt and everything in the back of his cab. He found it a little while later and put it in his pocket to keep it out of the hands of any of his other fares, and went back to the place where he dropped the guy off. On the way, he picked up a fare who happened to be a hooker. He was stopped by the cops for aiding prostitution, and when they found the scrip in his pocket they hauled him off to jail. Even though they were eventually able to contact the person whose name was on the prescription, he was still facing somoe serious time for possession of a controlled substance. To this date, I’m not sure how it ended up, though I know he’s no longer driving a cab. He’s also not in jail, so who knows?
So my best guess is that if it’s in your pocket, it’s “possession” but picking it up isn’t a problem??