Section 26-4-88. Restrictions on dispensing of medicines, drugs, or poisons; functions which require the professional judgment of a pharmacist

   (a) No person shall engage in the dispensing of any medicines, drugs, or poisons unless said person is a pharmacist licensed in accordance with this chapter or a pharmacy intern dispensing such items in accordance with this chapter.

(b) Except as otherwise required pursuant to Code Section 26-4-86, this chapter shall not apply to practitioners of the healing arts prescribing, compounding their own prescriptions, or dispensing drugs or medicines except as provided in Code Section 26-4-130.

(c) Nothing in this Code section shall prohibit any person from assisting any duly licensed pharmacist or practitioner, provided that such duly licensed pharmacist or practitioner shall be physically present in the prescription area and actually observing the actions of such person performing such tasks; provided, further, that no prescription shall be given to the person requesting the same unless the contents and the label thereof shall have been verified by a licensed pharmacist or practitioner.

(d) With respect to pharmacy technicians, the following functions require the professional judgment of a pharmacist, or pharmacy intern under the supervision of a pharmacist, and may not be performed by a pharmacy technician:

   (1) Acceptance of initial oral prescriptions;

   (2) Certification of a filled or finished prescription or prescription drug order;

   (3) Weighing or measuring active ingredients without a mechanism of verification;

   (4) Reconstitution of prefabricated medication without a mechanism of verification;

   (5) Verification of the constituents of final IV admixtures for accuracy, efficacy, and patient utilization;

   (6) Entry of orders on patient medication profiles without verification by a pharmacist; and

   (7) Provision of drug information that has not been prepared or approved by the pharmacist.

Code 1981, § 26-4-88, enacted by Ga. L. 1998, p. 686, § 1; Ga. L. 2013, p. 127, § 6/HB 209.