State pharmacist explains how DEA scheduling drives state statute updates

Anna Catherine Lambert, a pharmacist with the Mississippi State Department of Health Pharmacy, briefed the committee on how federal scheduling becomes state statutory text.

"So every year, we go through the DEA's federal register to see what they have scheduled in the previous 12 months," Lambert said, describing an annual review process. She explained that the department ensures new substances, including salts and isomers, are captured in state law by mirroring the DEA's Federal Register language. Lambert noted the approach covers naming variants and that the current strike‑all is meant to incorporate those federal listings through December 2025.

Lambert characterized most of the additions as fentanyl derivatives and related classes (suffixes like "phenidate" and reference to "tizines"). She told members that the legal entries expand because the statute must list salt forms and isomers separately; "they have to legally provide every single way that it could be listed," she said. The Department of Health's role, she said, is technical: ensuring statutory language is current with federal scheduling notices.