The state attorney general is allowing doctors to continue prescribing a narcotic used to treat pain and opiate addiction despite a law that prohibits them from doing so.

Some pharmacies stopped filling prescriptions last week after the state Narcotics Enforcement Division, part of the Department of Public Safety, discovered a 2012 law that bans doctors from prescribing suboxone for the purpose of opioid detoxification or maintenance. The law allows physicians to dispense and administer the drug to patients, but not to prescribe it.

“Our analysis has concluded that current portions of … the Hawaii Revised Statutes can be interpreted in more than one way, but within the context of the entire section, the existing practice of doctors who prescribe suboxone for the purpose of opioid detoxification or maintenance treatment of opioid dependence may continue,” said Attorney General Doug Chin. “It may be appropriate to clarify this statute during the next legislative session.”

The Narcotics Enforcement Division regulates the prescribing of opiates and any other classified drugs in the state, but for more than 10 years a Kailua internist, Dr. Dale Adams, said he has had a federal waiver to prescribe suboxone, which is being used across the country to manage a growing opiate dependence crisis.

“Even suboxone can be abused, but if it’s taken as directed it’s wonderful and leaves people normal,” Adams said. “By far the majority of opiate addicts don’t want to quit. The ones who seek help are the wise ones because they recognize the destruction. The other opiates sooner or later will kill you.”

Suboxone is a prescription drug that contains the active ingredients buprenorphine and naloxone and helps wean addicts off other opiates without many side effects.

“Suboxone … is probably going to be necessary for the long haul,” Adams said. “The bad news is you may have to take this for the rest of your life. The good news is there is a rest of your life and you can participate in it normally.”