BILL NUMBER: AB 1535INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bloom JANUARY 21, 2014 An act to add Section 4052.01 to the Business and Professions Code, relating to pharmacists. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1535, as introduced, Bloom. Pharmacists: naloxone hydrochloride. Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacists by the California State Board of Pharmacy. Existing law, generally, authorizes a pharmacist to dispense or furnish drugs only pursuant to a valid prescription. Existing law authorizes a pharmacist to furnish emergency contraceptives and hormonal contraceptives pursuant to standardized procedures or protocols developed and approved by both the board and the Medical Board of California, as specified, or developed by the pharmacist and an authorized prescriber. Existing law also authorizes a pharmacist to furnish nicotine replacement products pursuant to standardized procedures or protocols developed and approved by both the board and the Medical Board of California, as specified. Existing law authorizes a licensed health care provider who is permitted to prescribe an opioid antagonist and is acting with reasonable care to prescribe and dispense or distribute an opioid antagonist for the treatment of an opioid overdose to a person at risk of an opioid-related overdose or a family member, friend, or other person in a position to assist a person at risk of an opioid-related overdose. This bill would authorize a pharmacist to furnish naloxone hydrochloride in accordance with standardized procedures or protocols developed by the pharmacist and an authorized prescriber or developed and approved by both the board and the Medical Board of California. The bill would require a pharmacist to complete a training program on the use of opioid antagonists prior to performing this procedure. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 4052.01 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read: 4052.01. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a pharmacist may furnish naloxone hydrochloride in accordance with either of the following: (1) Standardized procedures or protocols developed by the pharmacist and an authorized prescriber who is acting within his or her scope of practice. (2) Standardized procedures or protocols developed and approved by both the board and the Medical Board of California. (b) Prior to performing a procedure authorized under this section, a pharmacist shall complete a training program on the use of opioid antagonists that consists of at least one hour of approved continuing education on the use of naloxone hydrochloride.