By:  Madla                                             S.B. No. 254
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the authority of the director of the Department of
 1-2     Public Safety of the State of Texas to permit the use of triplicate
 1-3     or single prescription forms under the Texas Controlled Substances
 1-4     Act.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 40, Chapter 745, Acts of the 75th
 1-7     Legislature, Regular Session, 1997, is amended to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 40.  The changes in law made by this Act relating to a
 1-9     prescription written under the triplicate prescription program take
1-10     effect September 1, 1999, except that Section 481.0761, Health and
1-11     Safety Code, as added by this Act, takes effect September 1, 1997.
1-12     The director of the Department of Public Safety by rule may permit
1-13     the use of triplicate or single prescription forms during a period
1-14     of transition[, but not after March 1, 1999].
1-15           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-20     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-21     passage, and it is so enacted.