Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

  Whereas, the deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is forthwith to further protect patients and residents by reducing the incidence of medication errors,

  Whereas, medication errors induce injury and death not only representing a major public health problem, but also incurring economic costs and loss of trust,

  Therefore, It is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the preservation of the public safety.
 

SECTION 1: Section 7 of chapter 94C of the General Laws as most recently appearing in the 1998 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after subsection (g), the following new subsection:-

 (h) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, only a
dentist, nurse, physician, podiatrist, perfusionist, optometrist or veterinarian licensed as a professional by chapter 112 of the General Laws, or any student enrolled in a course of study for said profession acting under the supervision of said licensed person and in accordance with the General Laws, may administer any controlled substance in schedule II, III, IV, V or VI of Section 3 of chapter 94C of the General Laws.  This shall not be construed to prohibit the following: (1) self-administration (2) administration of epinephrine pens in an emergency; (3) administration of controlled substances by emergency medical system personnel or (4) administration of controlled substances by any ill, injured or infirm person's domestic partner or family member(s).  For the purposes of this section, "self- administration" shall include the ability of any ill, injured or infirm person who has sufficient understanding of their prescribed controlled substance(s); the indications and contraindications for such controlled substance(s); a recollection of the administration schedule for such controlled substance(s) and an ability to communicate this knowledge and the experienced effect of having taken a controlled substance, to supervise an unlicensed person in the direct administration of such controlled substance(s) to them.