In February, the DEA had ordered that the two CVS pharmacies in Florida suspend shipments of controlled drugs due to the high volume of oxycodone that was being dispensed. However, earlier this month, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, temporarily lifted the DEA’s suspension allowing them to continue business despite the DEA’s concern that CVS had failed to closely monitor sales of oxycodone.
Fortunately, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) can suspend the sale of controlled substances at the two Florida CVS pharmacies, thereby lifting the temporary order that allowed the pharmacies to continue dispensing controlled medications, the Associated Press reports.
The DEA claimed that the two pharmacies were “filling prescriptions far in excess of the legitimate needs of its customers.” While the average pharmacy in the United States in 2011 ordered approximately 69,000 oxycodone dosage units. The two pharmacies were located about 5.5 miles apart from each other, they ordered more than three million dosage units during the same year, according to the DEA.
Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson, of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., was the judge who granted CVS a temporary restraining order, allowing CVS to continue dispensing controlled prescription drugs.
