September

The development of this or any other professional standard is not “unprecedented.” The College has a statutory obligation to set standards for medical practice, and most elements contained in the standard on safe prescribing have appeared in successive versions developed by the College’s Prescription Review Program entitled Prescribing Principles. The College has been using the prescribing principles in its work with registrants for more than 3 years.

References

In an unprecedented move, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC) introduced the professional standards and guidelines Safe Prescribing of Drugs with Potential for Misuse/Diversion as a legally enforceable policy on 1 June 2016.

The standard extends the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain to include stimulants and sedatives.

Safe Prescribing of Drugs with Potential for Misuse/Diversion was developed over the past year as an evolution to a previous document entitled Prescribing Principles, which failed to prevent an increasing toll of prescription drug misuse and overdose deaths in this province.

The Section of Psychiatry is both disappointed with and concerned about the new professional standards and guidelines for Safe Prescribing of Drugs with Potential for Misuse/Diversion put into effect by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC on 1 June 2016. We believe that the release of this document reflects a striking failure of due diligence, and a major misstep in the College’s fiduciary duty to guard public safety.

The College appreciates the opportunity to respond to a letter regarding its professional standard, Marijuana for Medical Purposes. According to the Health Professions Act (HPA), the role of the College is to establish, monitor, and enforce standards of practice to reduce incompetent, impaired, or unethical practice. The regulation of medical marijuana is an obligation that medical regulatory authorities across Canada have been reluctant to take on.