Pharmacy Division

Division Services and Activities

 

Overdose Data to Action 

In 2019, ADPH received multiyear funding from the CDC, Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) to continue the fight against opioid deaths due to overdose. OD2A fits into CDC's broad framework to address the opioid crisis based on five key strategies. ADPH collaborates with local county health departments, state, university, and community partners to implement this multiyear cooperative agreement. The goal of OD2A is to support jurisdictions in collecting high quality, comprehensive, and timely data on nonfatal and fatal overdoses to develop data informed overdose prevention strategies.

Visit the CDC's OD2A for more information.  

The Pharmacy Division 

The Pharmacy Division consults and coordinates with all public health units, including county health departments and other agencies, on medication-related and pharmacy-related activities. These activities include, but are not limited to, distribution issues, clinical information, drug scheduling, purchasing, and regulatory issues. Medication reviews are also provided to state employees to enhance their knowledge about their medication. Consultation and assistance are provided in the areas of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, bioterrorism, diabetes, arthritis, and home health.

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) 

The (PDMP) is housed in the Pharmacy Division. The primary role of PDMP is to provide a secure database that includes the dispensing records of schedule II-V controlled substances in Alabama.

Internships

Internships to pharmacy students are provided by the Pharmacy Division, hosting students from Auburn University and Samford University. Assistance is also provided in coordinating professional education satellite programs for nurses, pharmacists, and physicians.

Strategic National Stockpile

The Pharmacy Division participates on the department's bioterrorism task force and coordinates development of Alabama's procedures for ordering and processing the Strategic National Stockpile, a special stockpile of drugs and supplies, which would be shipped by the federal government to the state following any public health emergency.

Visit the United States Department of Health and Human Services for more information. 

Partner Collaborations

End Stigma: Stop Judging. Start Healing. 

To extend the mission to end stigma in Alabama, ADPH and the Alabama Department of Mental Health launched a statewide campaign aimed at assisting friends, family, physicians, mental health care clinicians, substance abuse prevention and treatment providers, and all people in Alabama to change the way we speak about individuals with mental health illness, substance and opioid use disorders, HIV, and Hepatitis C. This campaign encourages the public to have open conversations to break the cycle of stigma by sharing kindness and understanding. Changing the way we talk changes people, and the words providers and families use are powerful.

Visit Stop Judging. Start Healing. to learn more about the campaign.

High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA)

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 to coordinate and assist Federal, State, Local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies address regional drug threats with the purpose of reducing drug trafficking and drug production in the United States. The HIDTA program oversees 33 regional HIDTAs in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.

This is achieved by:

• Facilitating cooperation among Federal, State, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to share information and implement coordinated enforcement activities;
• Enhancing law enforcement intelligence sharing among Federal, State, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies;
• Providing reliable law enforcement intelligence to law enforcement agencies to facilitate the design of effective strategies and operations; and
• Supporting coordinated law enforcement strategies that make the most of available resources to reduce the supply of illegal drugs in designated areas of the United States and in the Nation as a whole.

The Gulf Coast HIDTA is situated between major drug corridors along the Southwest Border and lucrative distribution markets along the East Coast and in the Midwest. This has resulted in significant illicit transshipment activity, including drugs and aliens, by Drug Trafficking Organizations on our interstate highway system. These same organizations transport illicit proceeds of their enterprise in bulk cash and weapons to the Mexican border. The interstate highway that traverses Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, western Tennessee, and western Florida are used as their transportation network.

The mission of the Gulf Coast HIDTA is to reduce illicit drug availability and its harmful consequences within its designated areas by supporting intelligence-driven task forces and supporting infrastructure designed to target, disrupt, and eliminate drug trafficking organizations impacting our region and beyond.

• 2025 Drug Threat Assessment 
• 2024 Drug Threat Assessment
• 2023 Drug Threat Assessment
• 2022 Drug Threat Assessment
• 2021 Drug Threat Assessment

 

Reporting of Tuberculosis Patients by Pharmacists

Alabama law explicitly requires that pharmacists dispensing anti-tuberculosis medications report that information to the State Health Officer, the county health officer, or their designee.

Section 22-11A-9 Reporting of Tuberculosis Patients by Pharmacists

Tips for Safe Medicine Use

Safe Medication Disposal

Also check out Resources for Public to learn more about prescription drug abuse.