As the chief officer of an emergency medical services agency, part of your role and responsibility could be safeguarding the agency’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) guidelines on controlled substances. For this assignment, you are to create a comprehensive operating policy for an emergency services agency that covers all components of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). In the introduction of your policy, identify the considerations, potential risks, and possible mitigation of legal action against emergency services organizations. These should include the penalties for CSA violations.
At a minimum, your policy must establish guidelines in the following areas:
- drug schedules,
- security requirements,
- loss or theft of controlled substances,
- record keeping,
- inventory,
- disposal, and
- wasting controlled substances.
