Important Takeaways:
- Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, submitted the legislation after his sister, a Texas resident, unknowingly consumed an abortion pill after her husband put it in her drink.
- A person caught with the drugs without a prescription could face up to five years in prison and have to pay a fine of up to $5,000.
- But the law couldn’t be used to prosecute a pregnant person who holds the drugs for their own use, even without a prescription
- The bill began as an effort to criminalize giving someone abortion drugs without their knowledge, and the reclassification was later added as an amendment.
- The new law creates the crime of “coerced criminal abortion.”
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(Reuters) – Walmart Inc said on Monday it would restrict initial acute opioid prescriptions to no more than a seven-day supply as the retailer aims to curb an opioid epidemic that has plagued the United States.
The supply limit will begin within the next 60 days, the company said.
In January , Walmart said it would provide its customers filling prescriptions for opioids with a packet of powder that would help them dispose of leftover medication.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 115 Americans die on average every day from an opioid overdose.
The company also said on Monday that from Jan. 1, 2020 it would require e-prescriptions for controlled substances, noting that these prescriptions are proven to be less prone to errors and cannot be altered or copied.
The initiatives apply to all the pharmacies of Walmart and its Sam’s Club unit in the United States and Puerto Rico.
(This story has been corrected to add dropped words “initial acute” in first paragraph)
(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
