Pharmacy Delivery of Controlled Substances: Rules and Records

Delivering controlled substances to patients is a routine service for many community pharmacies, and the Controlled Substances Regulations, in force since October 1, 2026, set out how it works. A pharmacist or a pharmacy technician may deliver, send or transport a controlled substance (Controlled Substances Regulations s. 106), and Health Canada's guidance confirms they may use an individual or a transport company to do it. Three things follow the package: reasonable security measures, a method that tracks it until the person it is addressed to receives it, and a record at the pharmacy. Health Canada's guidance for community pharmacies (CS-GD-022) adds what that looks like at the door.

Tracked to the person it is addressed to

The pharmacist or technician takes all reasonable measures to keep the substance secure in transit, and uses a method of delivery, sending or transport that tracks it until the consignee receives it (Controlled Substances Regulations s. 107). Health Canada's guidance recommends a carrier able to keep it secure, and a chain of signatures, with the name or employee identifier of everyone who handles it, carrier staff included, up to the final recipient. The responsibility stays with the pharmacist or technician even when a third-party delivery service carries the package, as Health Canada stressed at its October 5, 2026 webinar for community pharmacies.

At the door, and at the counter

Health Canada's guidance says a controlled substance is delivered to the patient, or to a person the patient designates to accept it, and that proof of delivery such as a signature should be obtained. If nobody is home, the guidance says it should not be left in an unsecured location, such as a doorstep. Pick-up at the counter follows the same idea: the regulation lets a pharmacist provide a controlled substance for the use of another individual (Controlled Substances Regulations s. 98(1)), and Health Canada's guidance gives a spouse, partner or parent collecting for a patient as the example.

Never by mail

In the Controlled Substances Regulations, the defined word send does not include sending by mail (s. 1(1)). A pharmacy sending a controlled substance therefore does not mail it. Provincial rules on delivery can add to the federal ones, and the pharmacy's regulator is the place to confirm them.

Stock going to a destruction dealer

When controlled substances go to a licensed dealer specialized in destruction, the regulation adds packaging: a container sealed so that it cannot be opened without breaking the seal, and marked in a way sufficient to identify it (Controlled Substances Regulations s. 107). Health Canada's guidance describes the same container as sealed, tamper-evident and carrying a unique identifier.

The delivery record

The person who delivers, sends or transports records their name and the name and municipal address of their pharmacy; the name of any agent who carried it; the name of the person it went to, or the patient's name and any animal's name; the municipal address it went to; the date; the means of transportation; and the product's name or brand name, the controlled substance it contains, form, strength, number of containers and units, and DIN (Controlled Substances Regulations s. 120). Health Canada's guidance asks for two dates: the day it left the pharmacy and the day it was received.

When a delivery goes missing

Health Canada's guidance lists a delivery from the pharmacy straight to a patient among the ways a loss in transit can happen, and its October 5, 2026 webinar put the responsibility on the sender. A driver or courier acting for the pharmacist who learns of a loss or theft tells the pharmacist immediately (Controlled Substances Regulations s. 109(1)), and the pharmacist reports it to Health Canada in writing within 10 days after becoming aware of it (Controlled Substances Regulations s. 109(2)).

Where NarcCount fits

A delivered prescription is a dispense, and it reaches NarcCount through the pharmacy's dispensing records like any other. A package lost after it was dispensed does not appear as a variance on the shelf count, because the dispense already took it out of the expected figure. The delivery record and the pharmacist's loss or theft report are where that loss is documented, which is why the two dates on the delivery record matter.