For more than 30 years the New York State Legislature has enacted laws in response to the growing opioid crisis. These laws include civil and criminal laws restricting and/or tracking distribution in opioids by practitioners in the pharmaceutical and medical professions.

Many of the resulting prosecutions involving these laws begin with the narcotics investigators analyzing prescription records.

More recently, laws required prescription documentation be electronically created and transmitted by practitioners and filed with government agencies such as the New York State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. See https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/narcotic/ last accessed June 18, 2023.