CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A state legislative bill gave pharmacists the ability to give birth control over the counter. One woman is frustrated because she can’t actually get it yet.

Over the last few weeks, Marie Pouler has been calling and calling to ask pharmacists whether she can get birth control over the counter.

“It is incredibly frustrating. This is the fourth time I have been calling some of these places,” Pouler said.

A new legislation said pharmacists can dispense, deliver or administer birth control effective Feb. 1. Pouler says some pharmacists she called weren’t even aware of the law. Most told her they couldn’t give birth control over the counter yet.

A pharmacy manager in Durham explained why.

“We are waiting for certain protocols, so we can actually dispense the birth control to the patient,” Gurley’s Pharmacy Manager Vip Patel said. “Those protocols could include questions that we have to ask. That could also include procedures, like we may have to take the patient's blood pressure.”

The executive director of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy, Jay Campbell, says pharmacists are still waiting for a standing order for the state health director. He couldn’t say how long that will take.

“Implementation of a new practice authority is a complicated endeavor,” Campbell says. “State and health workers are working diligently to get this done. It takes time with the number of stakeholders involved.”

Pouler says she understands implementation takes time, but is disappointed this wasn't figured out before the law was put into effect.

“I am utterly frustrated at this lack of infrastructure and all the red tape and jumps,” Pouler said. “I am just disheartened.”