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A letters-and-numbers marking showing a medicine's controlled-drug schedule.
Also known as: CD marking, Schedule marking, Controlled substance symbol
A controlled drug marking identifies a medicine as falling within a legal schedule that restricts how it may be prescribed, stored, transported and destroyed. The schemes are national — Britain uses schedules under its misuse of drugs regulations, the United States uses a Roman-numeral schedule marked CII to CV — and the same substance can sit in different schedules in different countries. The marking is the visible edge of a regime that reaches from the prescription pad to the pharmacy safe.
Identifies a medicine as falling within a legal schedule that restricts how it may be prescribed, stored, transported and destroyed — which is why the marking matters to a pharmacy long before it matters to a patient.
Contexts: Medicine
Uses different schemes in different countries, and the same substance can sit in different schedules in each, so a marking read against the wrong country's scheme gives the wrong answer about what is permitted.
United Kingdom and United States · Contexts: Medicine
One or two capital letters followed by a numeral or a group of upright strokes, printed inside a ruled box on packaging.
Both are markings on a dispensed medicine.