§ 21-28-2.01. Authority to control - Registration requirements and procedures. (a)(1) The director of health shall control all substances enumerated in § 21-28-2.08 or may by motion or on the petition of any interested party pursuant to the procedures of chapter 35 of title 42, the Administrative Procedures Act, add, reschedule, or delete a substance as a controlled substance. In making this determination, the director of health shall consider, but not be limited to the following:

(i) (Its actual or relative potential for abuse;

(ii) Scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect if known;

(iii) State of current scientific knowledge regarding the substance;

(iv) Its history and current pattern of abuse;

(v) The scope, duration, and significance of abuse;

(vi) What, if any, risk there is to the public health;

(vii) Its psychic or physiological dependence liability;

(viii) Whether the substance is an immediate precursor of a substance already controlled under this chapter.

(2) After considering the factors in subdivision (1) of this section the director of health shall make findings with respect to these factors and shall issue an order controlling the substance if it is found that the substance has potential for abuse.

(b) If the director of health 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.

(c) If any substance is designated, rescheduled, or deleted as a controlled substance under federal law and notice of that action is given to the director of health, he or she shall similarly control the substance under this chapter after the expiration of sixty (60) days from publication in the federal register of a final order designating a substance as a controlled substance or rescheduling or deleting a substance, unless within that sixty (60) day period, the director of health objects to inclusion, rescheduling, or deletion. In that case, the director of health shall publish the reasons for objection and afford all interested parties an opportunity to be heard. At the conclusion of the hearing, the director of health shall publish his or her decision, which shall be final unless altered by statute. The director of health shall publish and file his or her decision with the secretary of state. Upon publication of objection to inclusion, rescheduling, or deletion under this chapter by the director of health, control under this chapter is stayed until the director of health publishes his or her decision.

(d) The following persons need not register and may lawfully possess controlled substances under this chapter:

(1) An agent or employee of any registered manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser of any controlled substance if he or she is acting in the usual course of his or her business or employment;

(2) A common or contract carrier or warehouse operator, or an employee of a carrier or warehouse operator, whose possession of any controlled substance is in the usual course of business or employment;

(3) An ultimate user or a person in possession of any controlled substance pursuant to a lawful order of a practitioner or in lawful possession of a schedule V substance.

(e) The director of health may waive by rule the requirement for registration of certain manufacturers, distributors, or dispensers if he or she finds it consistent with the public health and safety.

(f) A separate registration is required at each place of business where the applicant manufactures, distributes, or dispenses controlled substances. A separate registration is required at each place of professional practice at which a practitioner stores controlled substances. A practitioner may prescribe and administer controlled substances, upon registering with the director of health at the applicant's principal place of professional practice.

(g) The director of health or his or her authorized agent may inspect the establishment of a registrant or applicant for registration in accordance with his or her regulations.

History of Section. (P.L. 1974, ch. 183, § 2; P.L. 1979, ch. 168, § 1.)