Who can legally alter medication prescription?

Answer 1

Nobody has the ability to do that. Not even a doctor can alter it. They usually just write a new one and throw away the old one.

Answer 2

Anyone with the ability, desire, and access CAN alter the label.

If you are asking who is legally allowed to alter a label on a dispensed medication that is about to be delivered to the patient: only a pharmacist or someone the pharmacist has allowed and directed to change it. (Keep in mind that doctors are also pharmacists.) This is an unusual occurrence, however. As puckered as the medical community is about being sued it would boarder reckless and foolish. Generally, a new label will be printed and put on the bottle if it needs to be changed.

Ultimately the label must match doctor's orders. In that sense, anyone who altered the label to reflect doctor's orders is fixing an inaccuracy and probably didn't do anything wrong by altering the label per se. If the pharmacist labels a medication bottle and decides the medication is ready for delivery to the patient it will be because the label matches doctor's orders and the pharmacist decided it was safe to dispense said medication.

If someone unlicensed tampered with the label after getting it from the pharmacy that is outside my scope of experience. I would think at least possessing a prescription medication without being the person it was prescribed to (if they are not a licensed healthcare professional) would be an issue.

Answer 3

No one but the Doctor Who wrote the prescription, or another doctor acting in his stead in an emergency situation can alter a prescription.