(a) The Disease Prevention Demonstration Project, a collaboration between pharmacies and local and state health officials, is hereby authorized for the purpose of evaluating the long-term desirability of allowing licensed pharmacists to furnish or sell nonprescription hypodermic needles or syringes to prevent the spread of blood-borne pathogens, including HIV and hepatitis C.

(b) The State Department of Health Services shall evaluate the effects of allowing pharmacists to furnish or sell a limited number of hypodermic needles or syringes without prescription. The State Department of Health Services is encouraged to seek funding from private and federal sources to pay for the evaluation.

(c) The State Department of Health Services shall convene an uncompensated evaluation advisory panel comprised of all of the following: two or more specialists in the control of infectious diseases; one or more representatives of the California State Board of Pharmacy; one or more representatives of independent pharmacies; one or more representatives of chain pharmacy owners; one or more representatives of law enforcement executives, such as police chiefs and sheriffs; one or more representatives of rank and file law enforcement officers; a specialist in hazardous waste management from the State Department of Health Services; one or more representatives of the waste management industry; and one or more representatives of local health officers.

(d) In order to furnish or sell nonprescription hypodermic needles or syringes as part of the Disease Prevention Demonstration Project in a county or city that has provided authorization pursuant to Section 4145 of the Business and Professions Code, a pharmacy shall do all of the following:

(1) Register with the local health department by providing a contact name and related information, and certify that it will provide, at the time of furnishing or sale of hypodermic needles or syringes, written information or verbal counseling on all of the following:

(A) How to access drug treatment.

(B) How to access testing and treatment for HIV and hepatitis C.

(C) How to safely dispose of sharps waste.

(2) Store hypodermic needles and syringes so that they are available only to authorized personnel, and not openly available to customers.

(3) In order to provide for the safe disposal of hypodermic needles and syringes, a registered pharmacy shall provide one or more of the following options:

(A) An onsite safe hypodermic needle and syringe collection and disposal program.

(B) Furnish or make available for purchase mail-back sharps disposal containers authorized by the United States Postal Service that meet applicable state and federal requirements, and provide tracking forms to verify destruction at a certified disposal facility.

(C) Furnish or make available for purchase personal sharps disposal containers that meet state and federal standards for disposal of medical waste.

(e) Local health departments shall be responsible for all of the following:

(1) Maintaining a list of all pharmacies within the local health department’s jurisdiction that have registered under the Disease Prevention Demonstration Project.

(2) Making available to pharmacies written information that may be provided or reproduced to be provided in writing or orally by the pharmacy at the time of furnishing or the sale of nonprescription hypodermic needles or syringes, including all of the following:

(A) How to access drug treatment.

(B) How to access testing and treatment for HIV and hepatitis C.

(C) How to safely dispose of sharps waste.

(f) As used in this chapter, “sharps waste” means hypodermic needles, syringes, and lancets.

(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 728, Sec. 107. (SB 71) Effective January 1, 2013.)