SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 2244
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MARCH 18, 2019
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 2244, with committee amendments.
Senate Bill No. 2244, as amended, requires that the container for any prescription opioid medication dispensed in the State include a warning sticker describing the risks of opioid medications. The New Jersey State Board of Pharmacy will specify by rule or regulation the location on the medication container where the warning sticker or label is to be affixed and the specific language to be included on the warning sticker or label, which, at a minimum, is to indicate that the medication is an opioid and that opioid medications carry a risk of addiction and overdose. Unless otherwise provided by rules or regulations promulgated by the board, the sticker or label is to be red in color with text printed in black.
As amended and reported, this bill is identical to Assembly Bill No. 3292, as also amended and reported by the committee.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amendments provide that the warning on the container may be a label, or a sticker and that the New Jersey State Board of Pharmacy, instead of the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety, is to specify by rule the location on the container where the label or sticker is to be affixed and the font and format of any language included on the warning sticker or label. The amendments also exempt pharmacists dispensing medication in an institutional pharmacy from the requirements of the bill and provide that the text on the warning label or sticker, unless otherwise provided by rule of the board, is to be printed in black, instead of white. The amendments provide that the bill take effect on the seventh month next following enactment, instead of the fourth month.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This bill has not been certified as requiring a fiscal note.