Two bills in the Arkansas Senate are being considered to prevent overprescription of prescription narcotics, which is also an effort to reduce prescription drug abuse and deaths due to prescription drug abuse. If Senate Bill 302, sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain View), is approved it will require professional licensing boards to promulgate rules requiring practitioners to access the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program was established in 2011 which states, “Arkansas law requires that each dispenser shall submit, by electronic means, information regarding each prescription dispensed for a controlled substance. Each time a controlled substance is dispensed to an individual, the dispenser shall submit the information required by Arkansas law to the central repository weekly for the previous week, Sunday through Saturday.”