The Iowa Board of Pharmacy alleges it is no longer in the public interest to let a western Iowa Walgreens store distribute controlled substances. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports the board has charged a Walgreens store in Sioux City with committing acts that render its registration under the Controlled Substances Act “inconsistent with the public interest.” The board has not publicly disclosed the nature of the alleged acts or any other basis for the charges. Businesses that stock or dispense controlled substance are required by law to be registered under both the Iowa and the federal Controlled Substances Acts. Federal registration is handled by the Drug Enforcement Administration, while state regulations are the province of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy.

The Board of Pharmacy has also charged the Sioux City store with failure to create and maintain complete and accurate records, and with failure to maintain accountability of controlled substances. A hearing on the charges has been scheduled for Sept. 11. The street address of the Sioux City store has not been publicly disclosed by the board, but the corporate store number referenced in the charging documents corresponds to that of the store located at 4650 Morningside Ave.

Earlier this year, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy charged eight other Walgreens stores in central and eastern Iowa with violating pharmacy-recordkeeping regulations related to controlled substances.

While the basis of those charges was not publicly disclosed, they could be tied to a set of sanctions imposed in 2022, when the stores were penalized for a variety of alleged violations, including missing narcotics, a lack of qualified personnel and issues that caused some Iowans to lose access to their medications.