Nurse Practitioner Prescriptive Authority

Schedule II Controlled Substances Prescriptive Authority

Schedule II substances have a high potential for abuse which could lead to either severe psychological or physical dependence. These substances include hydromorphone, methadone, oxycodone, and fentanyl.

As of October 2026, based on each state’s current board of nursing or board of pharmacy regulations or statutes, the following jurisdictions permit nurse practitioners to prescribe Schedule II controlled substances, subject to the state-specific conditions noted:

• Alaska – Board of Nursing may authorize APRNs to prescribe; requires 15 contact hours of advanced pharmacology education, 2 hours of pain-management/opioid CE, mandatory PDMP registration and mandatory review of the patient’s Rx history before prescribing Schedule II or III.
• Arizona – NPs may prescribe Schedule II, but may not dispense a Schedule II opioid except for medication-assisted treatment of substance use disorder.
• Arkansas – Certificate-of-prescriptive-authority APRNs may prescribe Schedules II-V; Schedule II opioids limited to a 5-day supply except hydrocodone combinations, with additional-opioid patients referred to a physician; Schedule II stimulants (e.g., Adderall) allowed only as continuations originally initiated by a physician who evaluated the patient within the prior 6 months for the same condition; opioid-antagonist co-prescribing required above 50 MME/day, with concurrent benzodiazepines, or for patients with an overdose history.
• California – Furnished under a standardized procedure/protocol developed with the supervising physician (board-certified pharmacology course, DEA registration required); for Schedule II specifically the protocol must additionally address the diagnosis for which the drug is furnished (§2836.1(c)(2)), the furnishing must follow a patient-specific protocol approved by the treating/supervising physician (§2836.1(f)(2)), and the NP must complete added continuing education on Schedule II substances and addiction risk (§2836.1(g)(3)). No physician may supervise more than 4 NPs concurrently.
• Connecticut – During the mandatory 3-year/2,000-hour collaborative period, the written collaboration agreement must specifically address the level of Schedule II and III controlled substances the APRN may prescribe (Conn. Gen. Stat. §20-87a(b)(2)(A)); after that requirement is satisfied, the APRN may prescribe controlled substances in all settings, and the statute states no schedule-specific carve-out for the post-collaboration period (§§20-87a(b)(3), 20-94b). APRNs certified by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists have a separate grant under §20-94b to prescribe Schedule II-V drugs.
• Delaware – Statute grants full-practice and prescriptive authority, including to prescribe, procure, administer, store, dispense and furnish controlled substances, with no Schedule II carve-out and no collaborative-agreement requirement stated; Delaware is a recognized full-practice-authority state.
• District of Columbia – NPs have authority to prescribe Schedule II through V drugs per their practice protocol, with a valid DEA and DC controlled-substances registration; refillable prescriptions are prohibited for any scheduled substance.
• Florida – The statute requires the Board of Nursing formulary to limit Schedule II prescribing to a 7-day supply; the exception covers psychiatric medications prescribed by psychiatric nurses (as defined in s. 394.455). The formulary must also restrict prescribing of psychiatric mental health controlled substances for patients under 18 to psychiatric nurses. APRNs practice under an established protocol with a supervising physician (Fla. Stat. §464.012, 2026).
• Georgia – Since July 2024 (HB 557): APRNs may prescribe only hydrocodone or oxycodone (or compounds), only in emergencies, only as an initial prescription of 5 days or less, only for patients 18+, and only if added to the APRN’s protocol agreement.
• Hawaii – Statute delegates authority to the Board of Nursing, which sets an exclusionary formulary rather than excluding Schedule II outright. The Board’s most recently located published formulary (dated August 2016, reflecting that year’s Acts 92, 183 and 230) excludes only specific items — investigational drugs outside an IRB-approved trial, obesity-treatment stimulants/hormones, performance-enhancing hormones/steroids, methadone for narcotic maintenance/detoxification, and medical marijuana (with limited exceptions) — not Schedule II generally. The Board has a draft rules update circulating as of early 2026 that had not been finalized as of this review; confirm no interim change with the Board before relying on this.
• Idaho – APRNs may prescribe and dispense controlled substances per applicable state/federal law with a DEA number; no collaborative-agreement requirement (full-practice-authority state). Only stated restriction: no prescribing to self or family.
• Illinois – Oral/topical/transdermal formulations only (no injectables); each substance must be named in the written collaborative agreement; APN must have 45+ graduate pharmacology contact hours; prescriptions capped at 30 days.
• Indiana – The Board of Nursing’s rule allows an advanced practice nurse to be authorized to prescribe legend drugs, including controlled substances, and does not set a separate Schedule II limit. The application requires a graduate-level pharmacology course of at least two semester hours and a written practice agreement with a licensed practitioner; prescriptive authority expires October 31 of each odd-numbered year (848 IAC 5-1-1, 5-1-3).
• Iowa – ARNPs may prescribe, administer or dispense controlled substances within their role/population focus; no schedule-specific carve-out or physician-collaboration requirement found in the base prescribing grant (additional PDMP/opioid-specific safeguards apply under separate rules).
• Kansas – As of July 1, 2022, APRNs may prescribe/procure/administer controlled substances, including Schedule II, without a collaborative practice agreement or responsible physician.
• Kentucky – Requires a mandatory Collaborative Agreement for Prescriptive Authority – Controlled Substances (CAPA-CS) with a Kentucky-licensed physician; first-year APRNs must meet quarterly with the collaborating physician re: PDMP/KASPER review. After 4+ years, an APRN may petition for exemption from CAPA-CS.
• Louisiana – Requires a one-time 3-hour board-approved CE course, a written justification letter to the state Board of Nursing, tri-agency approval (Nursing Board, Pharmacy Board CDS license, DEA), and a Collaborative Practice Agreement naming the specific schedules requested. Barred for self/family, chronic pain or obesity treatment.
• Maryland – NPs may prescribe drugs they are authorized to prescribe, including Schedule II; dispensing (not just prescribing) requires a separate 5-year Schedule II record and is limited to specific settings. No collaborating-physician requirement found.
• Massachusetts – Prescribing without supervision allowed only after attesting to 2+ years of supervised practice; NPs with under 2 years must prescribe with supervision under written guidelines. Self-prescribing and prescribing Schedule II to immediate family (except emergencies) is barred.
• Michigan – Permitted only as a delegated act of a physician: both the APRN’s and the delegating physician’s names and DEA registration numbers must appear on the prescription (not independent authority) (MCL 333.17211a(1)(b), (2)).
• Minnesota – APRNs may prescribe, procure, sign for, record, administer and dispense controlled substances with no schedule carve-out found; requires DEA registration and filing DEA numbers with the board. No collaborative-agreement requirement found.
• Mississippi – Board rules permit APRNs to prescribe Schedules II-V under a filed collaborative/consultative arrangement with a physician or dentist. Schedule II opioids prescribed for chronic non-cancer/non-terminal pain carry added conditions (point-of-service drug testing before the initial prescription and at least three additional PDMP-linked screenings per calendar year, adherence to CDC chronic-pain opioid guidance, and a 10-day supply cap for acute-pain prescriptions); these opioid-specific safeguards do not apply the same way to Schedule III-V.
• Missouri – Narrowly restricted to hydrocodone-only products (plus a hospice-patient exception for other Schedule II drugs), only under a Collaborative Practice Arrangement and a Certificate of Controlled Substance Prescriptive Authority; capped at a 120-hour supply, no refill.
• Montana – No schedule-specific statutory limit found; NP prescribes under their own DEA registration with no collaborative-agreement requirement (full-practice-authority state).
• Nebraska – NP is an enumerated “practitioner” under the Uniform Controlled Substances Act with no schedule carve-out; subject to the same opioid-risk-disclosure rule as physicians. New APRNs complete a transition period before independent prescribing.
• Nevada – Requires 2 years/2,000 hours of clinical APRN practice to prescribe Schedule II independently; otherwise requires a signed protocol with a collaborating physician, DEA registration and Board of Pharmacy approval.
• New Hampshire – APRNs have plenary authority to possess, compound, prescribe, administer and dispense controlled and non-controlled drugs within their scope of practice; no collaborative-agreement requirement for in-person prescribing.
• New Jersey – Generally requires prescribing under a joint protocol with a collaborating physician that addresses whether prior physician consultation is needed before ordering a controlled dangerous substance (N.J.S.A. 45:11-49(b), (c)), plus six contact hours of continuing education in controlled-substance pharmacology. P.L. 2026, c.6 (approved March 30, 2026) exempts qualifying APNs from the joint-protocol requirement: more than 5,000 hours of licensed advanced practice in a qualifying population focus, among other conditions, and added requirements including 14 contact hours of controlled-substance pharmacology CE, a New Jersey Prescription Blank and malpractice coverage. Transition provisions apply to APNs who were practicing without a protocol under Executive Order No. 13 (2026). The statute draws no Schedule II versus III-V distinction.
• New Mexico – CNPs with prescriptive authority may prescribe and distribute dangerous drugs and controlled substances in Schedules II through V, via the unified NM Board of Pharmacy CS registration plus DEA registration pathway; no schedule-specific carve-out described by the Board.
• New York – NPs practicing under a written practice agreement/protocol (required until 3,600 hours of experience, a requirement effective until July 1, 2030) may prescribe controlled substances under a DEA number; no Schedule II-specific carve-out found. An alternative pathway for practitioners with 3,600+ hours of experience becomes effective July 1, 2030.
• North Carolina – Requires a collaborative practice agreement; supervising physician must hold the same DEA schedule registration as the NP. Schedule II, IIN, III and IIIN prescriptions are capped at a 30-day supply.
• North Dakota – APRN needs a DEA number and must check the PDMP for new/unestablished patients and every 6 months during ongoing treatment; no collaborative-agreement requirement, no schedule-specific quantity limit found.
• Ohio – An APRN may prescribe Schedule II only if the patient has a terminal condition, a physician initially prescribed the drug, and the quantity does not exceed a 72-hour supply — except when prescribing from a hospital, hospice, nursing home, FQHC, or a physician-owned practice with a standard care arrangement (in those settings, Schedule II is prescribable under the arrangement). Never from a “convenience care clinic.”
• Oregon – The Oregon State Board of Nursing may authorize a nurse practitioner to write prescriptions, including for controlled substances in schedules II through V, within the scope of practice defined by Board rules (ORS 678.390(1), 678.375(4)).
• Pennsylvania – Requires an active prescriptive-authority collaborative agreement; a CRNP may prescribe Schedule II for up to a 30-day supply as identified in the agreement. Schedule I is prohibited outright, along with gold compounds, heavy metal antagonists, radioactive agents and oxytocics. Full practice authority is not enacted (a 2025-2026 bill, SB 25, remains pending).
• Rhode Island – CNPs may prescribe Schedule II; psychiatric/mental-health APRNs are more restricted (excluded from Schedule II generally except stimulants).
• South Carolina – Schedule II narcotic capped at a 5-day supply (up to 30 days for hospice/palliative/long-term-care patients) and requires the supervising physician’s written agreement; Schedule II nonnarcotic capped at 30 days. All Schedule II drugs must be listed in the practice agreement. Requires 45 contact hours in pharmacotherapeutics and 15 hours in controlled substances.
• South Dakota – A certified nurse practitioner may prescribe, procure, administer and furnish pharmacological agents, including controlled drugs or substances listed on Schedule II in chapter 34-20B, within the CNP’s role and population focus (SDCL 36-9A-12(4)(b)). The Board of Nursing states that CNPs who order controlled substances must be registered with the federal DEA, the South Dakota Controlled Substance Registration and the South Dakota PDMP.
• Texas – Physician delegation for Schedule II is limited to hospital-based practice (patients admitted 24+ hours or in the ED, under hospital medical-staff policies) or hospice patients under a certified terminal-illness plan of care; the board’s rules require the delegating physician to register the delegated APRN/PA’s name and license number.
• Utah – Under Utah Code §58-31b-803 (effective May 6, 2026), a licensed APRN may prescribe or administer a prescription drug, including a Schedule II-V controlled substance, with no general consultation-and-referral-plan requirement stated in that section. A narrower rule applies only to APRN certified registered nurse anesthetists, who may prescribe only up to a five-day supply of a Schedule II-V drug immediately before or immediately after a procedure in which they participate, tied to an established patient record for that patient, and excluding ketamine.
• Vermont – No schedule-specific (II vs. III-V) restriction found; a formal collaborating-provider agreement is required until an APRN reaches 24 months and 2,400 practice hours in their initial role, after which independent prescribing is permitted.
• Virginia – Statute grants authority to prescribe Schedule II through Schedule VI controlled substances via a required practice agreement; a physician may not have practice agreements with more than 6 APRNs at once (10 for psychiatric-mental-health APRNs).
• Washington – ARNPs are barred only from Schedule I; for Schedules II-V the only stated requirements are that prescriptions be signed with the ARNP’s or NP credential, DEA registration be maintained, and all prescribing stay within applicable state/federal law and the ARNP’s scope of practice; no differentiation between II and III-V, no day-supply cap in the regulation.
• West Virginia – Schedule II narcotics limited to a 3-day supply by statute; requires an active, board-filed Collaborative Agreement unless the APRN has earned independent prescriptive authority after 3 years of documented collaborative practice.
• Wisconsin – Under Wis. Admin. Code N 8.06(3), an advanced practice nurse prescriber may not prescribe, dispense or administer any amphetamine or sympathomimetic amine designated as a Schedule II controlled substance except for listed uses: adjunct to opioid analgesics for cancer-related pain, narcolepsy, hyperkinesis (including ADHD), drug-induced brain dysfunction, epilepsy, or depression refractory to other therapies. Wisconsin’s APRN modernization (2025 Wis. Act 17, implemented through emergency rule EmR 2607) took effect September 1, 2026 (DSPS news release), and the Legislature flags Chapter N 8 as possibly affected by EmR 2607, so confirm current terms with the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services.
• Wyoming – APRNs may prescribe, administer, dispense or provide prescriptive medications except Schedule I drugs, with no supervision/collaboration required; requires a Wyoming Controlled Substance Registration and DEA registration.

Not currently permitted: Alabama, Maine, and Oklahoma do not permit nurse practitioners to prescribe this schedule of controlled substances under current law.

Status not independently confirmed: For the following jurisdictions, current guidance could not be confirmed against a clear, authoritative primary source as of this review. Rather than guess, we’re flagging them as unresolved — confirm directly with the state’s board of nursing:

• Colorado – The Colorado Board of Nursing governs APRN prescriptive authority through Rule 1.15 of its nursing rules (3 CCR 716-1). We could not retrieve the text of that rule or of the controlling statute this session, so the prescribing conditions for new prescribers and how they apply to Schedule II are unconfirmed.
• Tennessee – The Tennessee Department of Health’s APRN continuing-education page states that APRNs holding a Certificate of Fitness must complete two contact hours of continuing education per renewal that include the Department’s opioid treatment guidelines and benzodiazepines, barbiturates and carisoprodol (Rules 1000-04-.05 and 1000-01-.18). We could not retrieve the rule text governing supply limits or collaboration for Schedule II, so those conditions are unconfirmed.

Schedule III-V Controlled Substances Prescriptive Authority

Generally speaking, the lower the schedule number, the more potential a drug has to be dangerous or misused and therefore requires a higher level of regulation.

As of October 2026, based on each state’s current board of nursing or board of pharmacy regulations or statutes, the following jurisdictions permit nurse practitioners to prescribe Schedule III, IV, or V controlled substances, subject to the state-specific conditions noted:

• Alabama – Requires an annual QACSC, a collaborative practice agreement with a physician holding an unrestricted Alabama CSC, controlled-substance/pharmacology training, 12 months’ clinical experience and DEA registration.
• Alaska – Same regulatory framework as Schedule II.
• Arizona – No schedule-specific restriction found beyond general prohibitions (no self-prescribing, no prescribing outside an established provider-patient relationship).
• Arkansas – Prescribable appropriate to the APRN’s area of practice under a collaborative practice agreement (or an independent-practice track for APRNs meeting statutory experience thresholds); no day-supply cap specific to III-V found.
• California – Same general standardized-procedure framework; Schedule III shares Schedule II’s patient-specific-protocol requirement under §2836.1(f)(2)), but not the diagnosis-specific protocol content or added Schedule-II-specific continuing-education requirement, which apply to Schedule II only. Schedule IV-V require only the general standardized procedure/protocol.
• Connecticut – Same collaboration-agreement framework covers Schedule III jointly with Schedule II during the collaborative period; no distinct restriction found for Schedule IV-V or for the post-collaboration period.
• Delaware – Same statutory grant, no differentiation from Schedule II.
• District of Columbia – Same uniform treatment as Schedule II — authority for every schedule depends on the practice protocol, not the schedule level.
• Florida – Prescribable under the supervised protocol; the Board-adopted formulary may further limit prescribing by specialty, approved uses or quantity (Fla. Stat. §464.012(6)).
• Georgia – Standard DEA registration permits Schedule III-V prescribing under the protocol agreement.
• Hawaii – Same exclusionary-formulary framework and named exclusions apply uniformly across schedules; no separate Schedule III-V carve-out found.
• Idaho – No differentiation from Schedule II found.
• Illinois – Broader delegation allowed under the collaborative agreement; no formulation restriction or extra pharmacology-hour carve-out beyond the general APN requirement.
• Indiana – Same rule as Schedule II (controlled substances generally); no differentiation in 848 IAC 5.
• Iowa – Same grant; no distinction in the regulations.
• Kansas – Same independent authority applies, post-2022.
• Kentucky – Same CAPA-CS framework covers Schedule II-V together.
• Louisiana – Same CE/CPA framework, described as somewhat less stringent in the justification step.
• Maine – CNPs and CNMs may prescribe Schedule III/IIIN, IV and V after 24 months of supervised practice under board rules; CRNAs may prescribe the same schedules only within a maximum 4-day supply, no refills, for an established patient during the perioperative period.
• Maryland – Same regime; Schedule III-V scripts must be stamped with a red “C” ≥ 1 inch high when dispensed.
• Massachusetts – Same 2-year experience/supervision framework applies across Schedule II-IV as a set.
• Michigan – Same delegated-act framework covers schedules 2 through 5 together (MCL 333.17211a(1)(b)).
• Minnesota – Same statutory grant, no distinction found.
• Mississippi – Same collaborative/consultative-arrangement grant covers Schedule III-V; the added point-of-service-testing/PDMP-screening/CDC-guideline conditions specific to chronic-pain Schedule II opioids do not carry over.
• Missouri – Generally permitted under the CPA, subject to the same 120-hour/no-refill cap for Schedule III narcotics specifically.
• Montana – Same as Schedule II — no separate statutory limit found.
• Nebraska – Same statutory basis, no separate schedule-specific limit found.
• Nevada – Available from initial licensure/prescriptive-authority approval, no protocol requirement.
• New Hampshire – Same plenary authority; telemedicine prescribing of Schedule II-IV requires an annual in-person evaluation.
• New Jersey – Same joint-protocol pathway and 2026 exemption as Schedule II; the statute speaks of controlled dangerous substances generally.
• New Mexico – Same statutory basis and application pathway as Schedule II, no distinction drawn.
• New York – Same as Schedule II, no distinct restriction found.
• North Carolina – Permitted under the same collaborative agreement; the 30-day cap explicitly extends through IIIN.
• North Dakota – Same as Schedule II, no differentiation found.
• Ohio – Permitted under a standard care arrangement, without the terminal-condition/72-hour limitation that applies to Schedule II.
• Oklahoma – Permitted, capped at a 30-day supply per prescription.
• Oregon – Same authorization covers schedules II through V together (ORS 678.390(1)).
• Pennsylvania – A CRNP may prescribe Schedule III or IV for up to a 90-day supply as identified in the agreement.
• Rhode Island – CNPs have full Schedule III-V authority; PMH-APRNs are limited to Schedule III-IV.
• South Carolina – Allowed if listed in the practice agreement; no specific statutory supply cap found.
• South Dakota – The Board of Nursing states that CNPs may prescribe, procure, furnish and administer over-the-counter, legend and controlled-substance drugs within their licensed role and focus area, with the same DEA, state registration and PDMP requirements; no separate Schedule III-V limit found.
• Texas – Allowed under physician delegation, capped at a 90-day supply including refills; refills require documented physician consultation.
• Utah – Same statute and effective-date version governs Schedule III-V identically to Schedule II for general APRNs; the CRNA-specific five-day peri-procedural limitation applies equally across Schedule II-V.
• Vermont – Same as Schedule II, no separate statutory language distinguishing III-V from II.
• Virginia – Same grant as Schedule II, via the practice agreement.
• Washington – Same as Schedule II, grouped together with DEA registration as the only requirement.
• West Virginia – Allowed under the same collaborative-agreement framework; no specific day-supply cap found for III-V.
• Wisconsin – N 8.06 sets no Schedule III-V-specific restriction: its drug-class limits are Schedule I (sub. (2)), the Schedule II amphetamine and sympathomimetic limit (sub. (3)) and anabolic steroids for nonmedical use (sub. (4)); prescribing is limited to the APRN prescriber’s areas of competence (sub. (1)). Chapter N 8 is flagged by the Wisconsin Legislature as possibly affected by emergency rule EmR 2607.
• Wyoming – Same authority/registration framework as Schedule II, no differentiation found.

Status not independently confirmed: For Colorado and Tennessee, current guidance on Schedule III-V prescribing could not be confirmed against a retrievable official source as of this review (see the details under Schedule II above). Confirm directly with the state’s board of nursing.

The state-by-state prescriptive-authority information above was reviewed against state board of nursing regulations, board of pharmacy regulations, and official state statute and regulation repositories, using those sources as the controlling authorities. Entries we could not confirm against a retrievable official source are flagged above or limited to what the source supports. This page reflects a snapshot of state law as of October 2026. Nurse practitioner prescriptive authority is one of the most frequently amended areas of state nursing law. Before making any prescribing, hiring, employment or practice decision based on this information, confirm current requirements directly with your state’s board of nursing or board of pharmacy.