Veterinary OSHA & DEA requirements in New York

§ 01Controlled-substance registration

Controlled-substance authority depends on how the New York practice is set up. New York's controlled-substances law defines "practitioner" to include a veterinarian licensed or otherwise permitted to dispense, administer, or conduct research with controlled substances in the course of licensed professional practice ¹. For an individual veterinarian acting as a practitioner, Part 80 permits dispensing "in good faith and in the course of their professional practice only" ².

Institutional dispenser warning: New York separately treats a "veterinary hospital" as an institutional dispenser when it is approved and certified by the Department to obtain, dispense, and administer controlled substances pursuant to practitioner orders ¹. Part 80 says veterinary hospitals qualified for controlled-substance privileges must first obtain a Class 3 controlled-substances license from the New York State Department of Health, then obtain DEA registration ³. This module does not decide whether a particular independent practice is a practitioner office or a veterinary hospital/institutional dispenser.

Storage and access: controlled substances must be safeguarded at the DEA-filed address and available for Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement inspection; access to controlled-substance stock must be limited to the minimum number of employees actually required to handle custody, dispensing, administration, or other handling ⁴. If the practice is a licensed institutional dispenser, Part 80 adds schedule-specific storage rules: Schedule I-II in a BNE-approved GSA class 5 cabinet/equivalent safe or vault; Schedule III-V in a securely locked cabinet for reserve/main stock; and double-cabinet rules for certain working stocks ⁵.

Theft, loss, or possible diversion — separate New York notification to BNE: New York requires persons licensed or certified under Public Health Law Article 33 and persons authorized to possess controlled substances in connection with their authorized activities to promptly notify the Department of each incident or alleged incident of theft, loss, or possible diversion of controlled substances manufactured, ordered, distributed, or possessed by such person; a form furnished by the Department for this purpose must be filed with the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, New York State Department of Health ⁶. The Department's form is the Loss of Controlled Substances Report (DOH-2094), published on BNE's Narcotic Enforcement Forms page (https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/narcotic/forms.htm) ⁷. This is a New York duty in addition to the federal theft/loss reporting pathway in the DEA master document: the federal DEA Form 106 report is filed with DEA, not BNE, and filing it alone does not supply the Department-furnished form that 10 NYCRR 80.110 requires to be filed with BNE ⁶. Section 80.110 also requires prompt notification to the Department of any charge or proceeding brought in any court or before any governmental agency, state or federal, alleging failure to comply with the federal Controlled Substances Act or the controlled-substance laws of any state ⁶.

Official prescription forms and e-prescribing: New York generally requires prescriptions written in the state to be on serialized official New York State prescription forms, and makes those forms non-reproducible and non-transferable ⁸. New York's electronic-prescribing mandate expressly exempts prescriptions "issued by veterinarians," so veterinarians are not required to transmit prescriptions electronically solely because of the New York mandate ⁸. If a veterinarian chooses to use electronic prescribing of controlled substances, keep the federal EPCS controls in the DEA SOP and apply the New York credential-safeguarding and BNE notification rules for electronic prescribing credentials ⁹.

Dispensing limits and labels: a practitioner may dispense no more than a 30-day supply unless a Part 80 exception applies ². A dispensed controlled substance must be in a suitable durable container with an orange label showing the animal species and owner/custodian name and address, dispensing practitioner's name/address/telephone, directions including dosage/frequency/maximum daily dosage, the warning "CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE, DANGEROUS UNLESS USED AS DIRECTED," date dispensed, and the substance name or Department code number ².

Disposal of unneeded controlled substances — New York prescribes the pathways. New York's disposal rule applies to "[a] person holding a Federal registration number," a person licensed by the Department under Article 33, or a person with lawful temporary custody, possessing controlled substances "which are undesired, deteriorated, obsolete, or for any reason no longer needed" — so any DEA-registered New York veterinary practice disposing of expired or unwanted stock is covered ¹⁰. "Destruction" means the substances have been rendered totally unrecoverable and beyond reclamation ¹⁰. The federal disposal SOP in the DEA master (DEA Form 41 / reverse-distributor route) is not by itself the New York framework: the covered person shall use one of the following routes ¹⁰:

• Return to the licensed distributor or manufacturer from whom the controlled substances were purchased; the distributor or manufacturer is required to accept only full packages still in sealed containers, but may accept partial containers if it wishes ¹⁰.
• Surrender to a person approved by the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement to receive controlled substances for destruction — a reverse distributor used for New York stock must be BNE-approved; BNE publishes a Reverse Distributor List (Surrender to Independent Companies) on its Narcotic Enforcement Forms page ^{10, 7}.
• On-site witnessed destruction, only with advance written Department permission: the practice must request permission from the Department in writing at least two weeks before the intended destruction, including an inventory of the substances to be destroyed, the specific method of destruction, the date, time and location, the identity of at least two persons to conduct and witness the destruction (who must be New York State-licensed practitioners, pharmacists, or nurses), and the reason; destruction may proceed only after receiving the Department's written approval, which will include specific protocols for and methods of destruction ¹⁰. BNE's request form is the Request for Approval of Disposal/Destruction of Controlled Substances (DOH-2340) ⁷. If the Department does not grant approval, the substances must be surrendered to BNE instead ¹⁰.
• Surrender to BNE: request a surrender date from the bureau on bureau-provided forms (with an inventory of the substances, the identity of at least two New York State-licensed practitioners, pharmacists, or nurses who conducted the inventory, the reason for surrender, and proposed and alternative dates); surrender only after receiving a surrender date in writing, and ship no later than five days from the bureau's surrender date. Packaging rules apply: solid dosage forms in separate, individual, paper packaging only; liquids (including injectables and prefilled syringes) emptied into labeled individual plastic containers with glass prohibited; and no needles or syringes may be surrendered to the Department for destruction ¹⁰.
• Surrender to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (or its successor agency) ¹⁰.

For an institutional dispenser, single-unit doses or partial doses remaining after administration or attempted administration may be destroyed on premises by a pharmacist or nurse with a notation on the administration record sheet and a second pharmacist, nurse, or other designated responsible person as witness ¹⁰.

Disposal records: a person disposing by return to the distributor or manufacturer, by witnessed destruction, or by surrender to the Department must keep a written record of the date of return or destruction; the name, form, and quantity of the substance; the name, address, and registry number of the person making the return; and the supplier or manufacturer to whom the substances were returned or the names and license numbers of the persons performing and witnessing the destruction. Surrenders to DEA follow DEA's record requirements. Any record required under Section 80.51 must be kept for five years ¹⁰.

Seven-day initial opioid supply limit — applicability to veterinary prescriptions is ambiguous: New York Public Health Law 3331(5)(b) provides that a practitioner "may not prescribe more than a seven-day supply of any schedule II, III, or IV opioid to an ultimate user upon the initial consultation or treatment of such user for acute pain," with follow-up prescriptions after the initial consultation returning to the normal supply rules ¹¹. New York defines "practitioner" to include veterinarians ¹, and defines "ultimate user" to include a person who lawfully obtains and possesses a controlled substance "for an animal owned by him or in his custody" ¹. The statutory trigger, however, is the initial consultation or treatment of such user — the person — for acute pain, while in a veterinary encounter the patient treated for pain is the animal. The fetched statutory text does not state whether the limit reaches veterinary prescriptions, and this module does not assume either way.

New York-only scheduling divergences: anabolic steroids and chorionic gonadotropin

New York schedules two veterinary-relevant drug groups more strictly than federal law, so schedule-dependent New York duties (storage, prescribing, and recordkeeping rules that key off the schedule) apply at the New York schedule even where the federal master documents in this kit describe a lower federal schedule.

Anabolic steroids are Schedule II in New York (federal: Schedule III). PBH 3306 places anabolic steroids in Schedule II, subdivision (h): "'anabolic steroid' shall mean any drug or hormonal substance, chemically and pharmacologically related to testosterone (other than estrogens, progestins, corticosteroids and dehydroepiandrosterone)," with a list that includes testosterone, boldenone, stanozolol, trenbolone, and mibolerone, plus "any salt, ester or ether of a drug or substance described or listed in this subdivision" ¹². Federally, anabolic steroids are Schedule III under 21 CFR 1308.13(f) ¹³. A New York practice stocking injectable testosterone, stanozolol, boldenone, or mibolerone (for example, equine or canine use) must handle them as New York Schedule II. New York's Schedule II (h) does not include substances containing anabolic steroids expressly intended for administration through implants to cattle or other nonhuman species that are FDA-approved solely for such use ¹².

Chorionic gonadotropin is Schedule III in New York (federal: not scheduled). PBH 3306 Schedule III, subdivision (g), covers "any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any amount of chorionic gonadotropin" ¹⁴. Chorionic gonadotropin does not appear in the federal controlled-substance schedules in 21 CFR Part 1308 ¹³, so a practice using it (for example, in equine or dairy reproduction work) has New York controlled-substance duties with no federal-schedule counterpart. The New York listing does not include substances containing chorionic gonadotropin expressly intended for administration through implants or injection to cattle or other nonhuman species that are FDA-approved solely for such use ¹⁴.

For both groups, PBH 3331(7) additionally bars a practitioner from administering, prescribing, or dispensing any substance in Schedule II (h) or Schedule III (g) "for other than therapeutic purposes" ¹¹.

New York-only scheduling: xylazine watch item

Current New York Public Health Law Section 3306 establishes schedules I-V ¹⁵, and the current Section 3306 text fetched for this revision did not show xylazine as an enacted scheduled substance ¹⁵. Four separate xylazine bills were pending — none enacted — in the 2025-2026 legislative session when checked for this revision, and they do not agree on an outcome:

• S5421 would designate xylazine a Schedule III depressant; referred to the Senate Health Committee 02/21/2025 and again 01/07/2026, not enacted ¹⁶.
• S2383 would classify xylazine as a Schedule I controlled substance and create criminal sale and possession offenses; referred to the Senate Health Committee 01/16/2025 and again 01/07/2026, not enacted ¹⁷.
• S4676 (same as A5099) would add xylazine to the Schedule I depressants with an exception for substances expressly intended for FDA-approved administration through injections to cattle or other nonhuman species; referred to the Senate Health Committee 02/11/2025 and again 01/07/2026, not enacted ¹⁸.
• S7668A would prohibit the knowing sale of xylazine above a certain weight to persons under 21 and without proof of intended institutional, veterinary, or scientific use; it advanced to third reading 05/21/2025, was committed to Rules 06/13/2025, and was referred to the Consumer Protection Committee 01/07/2026, not enacted ¹⁹.

A Schedule I outcome (S2383, S4676) would impose far stricter handling on a veterinary practice than the Schedule III outcome in S5421, so which vehicle (if any) passes matters for stocking decisions.

Hypodermic syringes and needles: sale and furnishing rules

New York restricts selling or furnishing hypodermic syringes and needles — this matters for a practice that sends clients home with syringes (for example, insulin syringes for a diabetic pet). PBH 3381(1) makes it unlawful to sell or furnish a hypodermic syringe or needle to another person except (a) pursuant to a prescription of a practitioner, (b) to persons authorized by the commissioner to obtain and possess them, or (c) by a licensed pharmacy, a licensed health care facility, or "a health care practitioner who is otherwise authorized to prescribe the use of hypodermic needles or syringes within his or her scope of practice," with the (c) route limited to persons eighteen years of age or older ²⁰.

• Furnishing on a prescription: the person selling or furnishing must record their signature (or electronic signature) and the date of sale or furnishing on the prescription; the prescription must be retained on file for five years and be readily accessible for inspection; refills are limited to the number specifically authorized by the prescriber, and no refill authorization is effective for more than two years from the date the prescription is signed ²⁰.
• Furnishing under the 18-and-older route: the sale or furnishing must be accompanied by a safety insert developed or approved by the commissioner (covering proper use, blood-borne disease risks, disposal practices, and related information), attached to or included in the packaging or given to the purchaser at the point of sale in brochure form ²⁰.
• Livestock exemption: PBH 3381 does not apply to farmers engaged in livestock production or to persons supplying them, provided syringes and needles are stored in a secure, locked storage container and, on the Department's request, the farmer can produce a document outlining the number purchased over the past calendar year, a record of all needles used, and a record of all needles and syringes destroyed (destruction per PBH 3381-a) ²⁰.

§ 02Prescription monitoring program (PDMP)

New York's prescription monitoring program is the PMP Registry. The registry covers information reported by pharmacies and by practitioners who dispense controlled substances ²¹. New York requires a practitioner who dispenses controlled substances to submit dispensing information electronically to the Department no later than 24 hours after delivery; for animal patients, the patient-name field is filled with the animal owner's name, and the report includes species code and animal name if applicable ². When applicable, the practitioner must also file a zero report or obtain a zero-report waiver ².

PMP query before prescribing/dispensing: New York's duty to consult the PMP Registry before prescribing or dispensing Schedule II-IV controlled substances does not apply to veterinarians ²¹. This is only a query exemption. It does not remove the dispensing-report duty described above.

§ 03OSHA: federal or state plan?

New York operates an OSHA-approved State Plan for state and local government workers only. Private-sector employers and workers are covered by federal OSHA ²², so the federal OSHA baseline in this kit remains the operative OSHA framework for a private practice. New York does, however, impose a separate private-sector workplace-safety duty outside OSHA — the NY HERO Act, below — which a New York practice must keep on file alongside the federal OSHA documents in this kit.

NY HERO Act (Labor Law 218-b) — airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan. New York Labor Law Section 218-b requires each private employer — "any person, entity, business, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or association employing, hiring, or paying for the labor of any individual," excluding government employers — to establish an airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan, either by adopting the model standard published by the Commissioner of Labor for its industry (or the general model standard) or by establishing an alternative plan that equals or exceeds the model's minimum standards ²³. The employer must provide the plan to employees in writing (and to each newly hired employee upon hiring), post it in a visible and prominent location within each worksite, and include it in the employee handbook if the employer provides one ²³.

This is an ongoing duty: NYSDOL states that "Private sector employers are still required to develop Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plans for future designated disease outbreaks," although plans do not currently have to be implemented — implementation is triggered only when the New York State Commissioner of Health designates an airborne infectious disease as a highly contagious communicable disease presenting a serious risk of harm to the public health (the COVID-19 designation ended March 17, 2022) ^{https://dol.ny.gov/ny-hero-act)">24}. The statute carries anti-retaliation protections and civil penalties, including for failure to adopt a plan ²³. NYSDOL publishes the prevention standard, a general model plan template usable by a veterinary practice, and industry-specific model plans ^{https://dol.ny.gov/ny-hero-act)">24}.

§ 04X-ray & radiation registration

New York registers radiation installations with operable or intended-to-be-used radiation equipment through the Department of Health, unless registration with the New York City Department of Health is accepted for installations under the NYC inspection program ²⁵. A new installation not already registered must apply between 60 and 30 days before establishment; renewal applications are due between 60 and 30 days before certificate expiration; and operator or location changes use the same 60-to-30-day advance window ²⁵. A certificate of registration is issued for a period not to exceed two years — except that the Department may issue a certificate for a longer period in order to stagger expiration dates for administrative purposes — is not transferable, must be conspicuously posted, and changes affecting registration information must be reported to the Department in writing within 10 days ²⁵.

For veterinary radiographic installations, New York requires beam-restricting collimation, diagnostic protective tube housing, required filtration, and a dead-man exposure switch ²⁶. During exposure, only persons required for the procedure may be in the room; mechanical supporting or restraining devices must be used when an animal must be held where practicable; animal or film holding is allowed only under clinically necessary extreme conditions; holders wear at least 0.5 mm lead-equivalent gloves and 0.25 mm lead-equivalent aprons, keep body parts out of the useful beam, and are exposure-monitored; pregnant women and persons under 18 may not hold animals or films ²⁶. Portable/mobile units must have a dead-man switch cord long enough for the operator to stand at least six feet from the animal patient, x-ray tube, and useful beam ²⁶.

Structural shielding for fixed installations: the control apparatus for fixed radiographic equipment must be located in an adjacent room or in a fixed booth within the same room composed of radiation shielding to a minimum height of seven feet; the control booth must either be arranged so that radiation has to be scattered at least twice before entering the booth, or be provided with a protective door interlocked so that the x-ray tube cannot be energized unless the door is closed; and the operator must be able to see the animal patient by means of a mirror or through a window of sufficient lead equivalence, placed so the operator is always in a shielded position ²⁶. A practice building or remodeling a fixed x-ray room must meet these requirements.

Fluoroscopic installations: if the practice operates fluoroscopy, 10 NYCRR 16.54(c) adds: the fluoroscopic exposure switch must be of the dead-man type; equipment must be constructed so the entire cross section of the useful beam is always intercepted by a primary protective barrier (usually a lead glass screen or image intensifier assembly), with the exposure terminating automatically when the barrier is removed from the useful beam; minimum filtration applies; protective gloves and aprons of at least 0.25 mm lead equivalent each must be made available and worn by the fluoroscopist during every examination, and worn by all other persons in the fluoroscopic room unless measurements indicate they are not needed; and only persons needed in the fluoroscopic room may be present during the exposure ²⁶. Mobile fluoroscopic equipment additionally requires a cone or spacer frame limiting source-to-skin distance to not less than 12 inches in the absence of a tabletop, image intensification at all times, and construction making it impossible to operate the machine unless the useful beam is intercepted by the image intensifier ²⁶.

§ 05Records retention

Veterinary medical records: New York State Education Department guidance says veterinary medical records must be adequate and retained for three years from the date of treatment, in original or legally reproduced form ²⁷. The same guidance says original medical records or copies may be released only to, or as authorized by, the client or to individuals permitted by federal and state law ²⁷.

Controlled-substance records: every veterinarian or other authorized practitioner must keep records of all controlled substances purchased and all controlled substances dispensed or administered from the practitioner's own stock ²⁸. Purchase records include delivery date, drug type and quantity, and supplier name/address; disposition records include dispensing/administering date, patient name/address, and drug type and quantity ²⁸. New York requires a biennial inventory for controlled substances listed in Section 3306; a federally compliant biennial inventory is deemed compliant with the New York inventory rule, and a copy must be retained with other controlled-substance records and available for inspection for at least five years ^{29, 30}.

Five-year retention for ALL controlled-substance transaction records — New York extends the federal two-year period. 10 NYCRR 80.100(a) requires records of all transactions concerning controlled substances required to be kept by practitioners (among other licensees) to be kept for a period of five years from the date of transaction ³¹. The federal baseline in the DEA master document is two years — 21 CFR 1304.04(a) requires inventories and records kept under Part 1304 to be available for inspection "for at least 2 years" ³² — so in New York every controlled-substance record described in this kit (purchase records, dispensing/administration records, inventories, and disposal records) must be kept for five years, not two. Records, orders, and prescriptions required by Part 80 or Article 33 must also be readily available and promptly produced for inspection and copying on request by authorized representatives of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and must be maintained at the premises where the licensed activity is conducted; records maintained electronically must be made available to the Department on request in a readily understandable hardcopy format at those premises ³¹.

Where a patient chart also contains controlled-substance information, keep the controlled-substance portions for the longer New York controlled-substance period — five years from the date of transaction under 10 NYCRR 80.100(a) ³¹ — even though the general New York veterinary medical-record retention period is three years ²⁷.

§ 06Sharps & medical waste disposal

New York regulates sharps as regulated medical waste (RMW). DEC identifies RMW as material generated in research, production and testing of biologicals or health care, including infectious animal waste and "Needles and syringes (sharps)" ³³. DEC lists veterinarians among examples of regulated institutions ³³.

Key New York duties for a veterinary practice:

• Treatment/disposal: RMW must be properly treated to destroy disease-causing organisms before disposal at an authorized solid-waste management facility; treatment/disposal requires a permit, and sharps must be destroyed before disposal ³³.
• Tracking: all regulated institutions must complete the Medical Waste Tracking Form ³³.
• Packaging/transport: most RMW, except medical-waste sharps, is required to be placed in plastic bags and then packaged in single-use or reusable rigid/semi-rigid leak-proof containers before transport; once collected, RMW is transported by third-party transporters to a permitted transfer or authorized treatment facility ³³.