MORPHINE is a scheduled drug controlled by legislation. It may be issued only by pharmacists on prescription by a registered medical practitioner, and such prescriptions are not repeatable, according to a Mayo pharmacist, Mr Gerry Flynn.
If the person for whom it was prescribed no longer needs the drug the remaining tablets must be returned to the doctor or pharmacist and cannot be issued again. They must be destroyed in the presence of a Garda inspector or an officer of the Pharmaceutical Society, Mr Flynn said. He said doctors would normally have morphine injections, rather than tablets for emergencies. Morphine tablets in a doctor's possession would have come back from a person who no longer needed them.
All scheduled drugs in the possession of a doctor must be kept under lock and key.