Over the course of 2023, there has been a substantial increase in the number of forgery attempts reported to ACP. Many of these attempts relate to prescriptions for opioids and stimulants and are attributed to out-of-province prescribers.
Pharmacy teams must exercise vigilance with all prescriptions for opioids and stimulants, particularly if you are not familiar with the patient or if the prescriber is from outside Alberta, to verify the authenticity of each prescription before medication is dispensed.
When forgery attempts are identified, it is important to report these incidents to the relevant authorities, including:
- ACP,
- police services, and
- Health Canada (if applicable).
When pharmacy teams report forgery attempts to ACP, it promotes awareness about recent forgery tactics and helps prevent the diversion of drugs.
Informing police services of attempted or successful forgeries supports their ability to apprehend the perpetrators. There are a number of tips for pharmacies to help report forgeries to local police shared on the ACP forgeries page.
Reporting to Health Canada is required if the forgery results in a drug product that contains a controlled substance or a precursor being dispensed, either partially or fully.
What other steps can I take to prevent forgeries?
Review ACP’s forgery alerts emails, as they contain current forgery information and trends. Regulated members who are not currently subscribed to ACP’s forgery alerts emails can email communications@abpharmacy.ca to be added to the mailing list.
Review the ACP forgeries page for information on how to report forgeries and for historical listings of all forgery data reported to ACP.
