Chart Map Gabapentin regulation_cms_resizeto_280x5

At the Humane Society of Utah, as at many shelters and veterinary clinics, gabapentin is frequently given as an anti-anxiety medication.

As Alexis Pagoulatos, executive director of the nonprofit organization, explained, "Many animals arrive at shelters injured, fearful or emotionally shut down from trauma, and gabapentin plays a key role in keeping them calm and relieving pain."

She made the statement to a Utah legislative committee earlier this year to convey that dispensing the drug had become more difficult and time-consuming because of a state law in 2024 that classifies gabapentin as a controlled substance. Pagoulatos spoke in support of a follow-up bill — that has since passed — providing an exemption for veterinarians, saying, "I'm deeply concerned that less-resourced shelters will experience compromised care without this exception."

Approved to treat seizures and neuropathic pain in humans, gabapentin is prescribed regularly in both human and veterinary medicine. The drug has become increasingly linked to cases of misuse by people and can be dangerous when used with opioids. This trend is causing states to step up oversight.

Utah is a case in point. By classifying gabapentin as a Schedule V controlled substance, the state compelled practitioners who administer, prescribe or dispense it to possess a state controlled-substance license and have a federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration.

Including veterinarians in the new requirements had unintended consequences, said state Sen. Jen Plumb, who sponsored the bill to exclude them.

As Plumb explained to her legislative colleagues, veterinarians use gabapentin often.

"We made it harder, especially for small practices that are single-practitioner practices, to be able to have those pills be dispensed out of their clinics."

The exemption bill apparently was an easy sell. It passed both chambers of the Legislature with no "no" votes and was signed by the governor on March 26. Veterinarians became exempt on May 7.

The change is the latest update on a patchwork quilt of gabapentin regulations across the United States. The VIN News Service contacted the 50 states and Washington, D.C., and researched their regulations online to ascertain which jurisdictions track gabapentin use and, among those that do, which ones include veterinary use.

We found a welter of approaches. For example, some states regulate gabapentin as a controlled substance subject to DEA regulations on record-keeping, storage, disposal and more. Some don't classify it as a controlled substance but require that its use be reported to the state's prescription monitoring program. Among states that track gabapentin, some — but not all — excuse veterinarians from the reporting requirements. A rundown follows.

Where it's a scheduled substance

Seven states classify gabapentin as a Schedule V drug: Alabama, Kentucky, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

At the federal level, the U.S. Controlled Substances Act of 1970 categorizes controlled drugs into "schedules" based on their medical usefulness and potential for misuse in humans. The categories run from Schedule I to Schedule V, with Schedule I being the most tightly regulated. Examples of controlled drugs commonly prescribed in veterinary medicine include morphine (Schedule II) and benzodiazepines (Schedule IV). Gabapentin is not a controlled substance under federal law.

Most drug scheduling is done at the federal level, making gabapentin's state-by-state regulations uncommon, although not unique. Another drug not federally controlled but used in veterinary medicine, xylazine, has a similar pattern of hodgepodge scheduling — the result of state efforts to curb the misuse of the powerful sedative.

Michigan was one of the first states to classify gabapentin as a Schedule V drug, in 2019. Five years later, in 2024, it became the first and only state to date to deschedule gabapentin. Removing a drug from a scheduled class is uncommon.

State restrictions on opioid prescribing and dispensing, alongside more robust prescription monitoring, led the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to deem it no longer necessary for gabapentin to be scheduled, according to Abby Rubley, a department spokesperson.

To report or not report?

In addition to following federal DEA requirements for scheduled drugs, providers generally are also required to report such drugs' use to their respective states' online prescription monitoring program, sometimes called a prescription drug monitoring program (PMP or PDMP). However, veterinarians are sometimes exempt from reporting.

Of the seven states that classify gabapentin as a controlled substance, only three require veterinarians to report. They are Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Apart from scheduling, states may also regulate a substance as a drug of concern and may specify that administration, dispensing or prescribing be reported to their PMP. This is the case for gabapentin in 16 states as well as in Washington, D.C. The states are Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Once again, though, the rules vary for veterinarians. Of these 16 states, only four, plus Washington D.C., require reporting by veterinarians. The four states are Connecticut, Indiana, Nebraska and North Carolina.

In sum, gabapentin is subject to reporting by veterinarians in eight jurisdictions all told. To reiterate, they are Connecticut, Indiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Veterinarians vary in their outlook on gabapentin regulations. For example, Dr. Nate Whiting, president of the Utah Veterinary Medical Association, said he wasn't too concerned when gabapentin became scheduled in his state, even before veterinarians were exempted.

"Certainly, it was inconvenient in some cases, but it wasn't making it impossible to practice," Whiting said.

Some practitioners in North Carolina were more critical when their state mandated that they begin reporting gabapentin to the state PMP starting in March this year. They told VIN News at the time that they would opt instead not to use the drug at all.