An estimated hundreds of millions prescribed medication doses are diverted to the street each year. Triplicate-prescription programs were developed as an effort to decrease the diversion of prescription medications to illicit markets at a reduced cost of government investigation. States with such laws require physicians to write prescriptions on special triplicate forms for all Schedule II drugs, including narcotic analgesics, Barbiturates, and stimulants. In 1989 New York State passed legislation requiring triplicate prescribing for the Benzodiaze-pines (Schedule IV substances).

In triplicate prescribing, the physician keeps one copy of the prescription for five years and sends two copies with the patient to the pharmacist. The pharmacist keeps one copy and forwards the third to a specified state agency. Here the prescription is used to track the physician's prescribing practices and the patient's use of the controlled substances. With some exceptions, refills are not permitted for medications prescribed under...