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CHAPTER 227
PHARMACY

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

SECTION

Short title.
Interpretation.

Drugs

Sale of drugs and poisons by unlicensed persons prohibited.
Cessation of operation of business.
Owner to notify names of pharmacists.
Prescriptions to be numbered.
Restriction on sale of drugs and devices.
How medicines to be dispensed.

Poisons

Regulating sale of poisons.
Modification of restrictions on sale of certain preparations of poisons.
Restrictions as to sale of arsenic.
Provisions for colouring arsenic.
Arsenic to include arsenious compounds.

Miscellaneous

Penalties.
Recovery of penalties.
Privileges of nurses.
Exemptions.

SCHEDULES

FIRST SCHEDULE - List of Drugs and Devices.

SECOND SCHEDULE - List of Poisons.

CHAPTER 227

PHARMACY

An Act to provide for the licensing of pharmacists and for the control of the sale and distribution of drugs and poisons.

25 of 1962
43 of 1964
11 of 1966
24 of 1966
E.L.A.O., 1974
5 of 1987
31 of 1998

[Commencement 23rd May, 1962]

1. This Act may be cited as the Pharmacy Act.

Short title.

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-

Interpretation.

"certificate of competency" means a certificate granted by the Board under this Act;

"dentist" means a person whose name appears on the Dentists' Register;

"device" means any instrument, apparatus or contrivance, including components, parts and accessories thereof, manufactured, sold or represented for use in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of a disease, disorder, abnormal physical state, or the symptoms thereof, in man or animal;

"drug" includes any substance or mixture of substances manufactured, sold or represented for use in-

(a)
the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of a disease, disorder, abnormal physical state, or the symptoms thereof, in man or animal; or
(b)
restoring, correcting or modifying organic functions in man or animal;

"licensee" means a person holding a licence as a pharmacist under this Act;

"medical practitioner" means any person registered under the Medical Act, or any Act passed in amendment thereof or substitution therefor;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for Pharmacy;

"package" includes anything in which any drug or device is wholly or partly contained, placed or packed;

"pharmaceutical apprentice" means any person not less than seventeen years of age actively engaged and employed thereafter for a period of not less than four years as apprentice to a pharmacist;

"pharmacist" means any person licensed or entitled to be licensed under this Act and includes chemist and apothecary;

"pharmacy" means an establishment where drugs or devices are dispensed or prepared or sold by retail;

"poison" means any one of the several articles named or described in the Second Schedule to this Act;

"prescription" means a written order given by a medical practitioner, a dentist or a veterinary surgeon, directing that a stated amount of any drug or mixture of drugs be dispensed for the person named in the order with or without the method of using;

"retail" means sell a drug or device to the general public;

"rules" means rules made under this Act;

"Schedule" means Schedule to this Act;

"sell" includes offer for sale, expose for sale, have in possession for sale, and distribute;

"veterinary surgeon" means a person registered as such or licensed as a veterinary practitioner under the provisions of the Veterinary Surgeons Act.

Drugs

3. (1) Except as hereinafter provided in subsection (4) of this section, it shall be unlawful for any person other than a licensee-

Sale of drugs and poisons by unlicensed persons prohibited.

(a)
to sell or retail for human use any glandular product, toxoid, serum, vaccine or bacterin which is intended for oral or parenteral administration;
(b)
to sell or retail any veterinary biological product for use by oral or parenteral administration;
(c)
to sell either by wholesale or retail any drug or poison;
(d)
to dispense any prescription or prepare or compound any drug for retail;
(e)
to keep open any shop or dispensary for making up or compounding any prescription;
(f)
to assume or use the title "druggist", "pharmacist", "chemist and druggist", "pharmaceutical chemist", "apothecary", "dispensing chemist", "dispensing druggist" or any other title or symbol calculated to suggest that he is recognised by law as a licensee entitled to dispense prescriptions or to prepare or retail drugs and devices;
(g)
to display any sign, fixture, title or advertisement bearing the words "drugs", "drug store", "drug dispensary" or any other words or symbols intended to convey the impression that the premises to which such sign, fixture, title or advertisement relates are duly licensed for the sale of drugs or devices.

(2) No licensee shall permit any person other than a pharmaceutical apprentice who has obtained a certificate of competency to sell any poison or to make up or compound any prescription except under his direct supervision.

(3) It shall be lawful for the Minister to grant to any person resident in an Out Island who is recommended by the commissioner of the district a permit to sell any drug or any preparation thereof, or any poison approved by the Minister.

(4) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the drugs and devices listed or described in the First Schedule.

(5) The requirements of subsection (1) and (2) of this section shall be deemed to have been complied with, whether the pharmacist in question be the proprietor of the pharmacy or establishment or not, if he is in fact engaged in the work of supervising, directing and controlling the retailing, dispensing or compounding of drugs or devices or of dividing, subdividing or otherwise.

4. Every person owning or operating or being in charge of a dispensary, pharmacy, or hospital dispensary shall within five days after ceasing to own, operate or be in charge of such dispensary, pharmacy or hospital dispensary, notify the Treasurer in writing of the cessation.

Cessation of operation of business.

5. Every owner of a pharmacy shall on or before the tenth day of January in each year notify the Treasurer of the names of the pharmacists and pharmaceutical apprentices employed therein.

Owner to notify names of pharmacists.

6. (1) Every licensee shall-

Prescriptions to be numbered.

(a)
number each medical prescription which shall be brought to his establishment to be made up;
(b)
file each such medical prescription or, in the event of the person for whom the prescription was given desiring to retain the original prescription and such prescription not containing any dangerous substances or quantities of any substance which would make it inadvisable for the licensee to part with the same, a true copy thereof;
(c)
register in a book the number and date of each medical prescription made up on his establishment, the name of the person for whom, and of the medical practitioner by whom, the same was given, the particulars of every prescription, and the directions which accompanied the medicine.

(2) The register referred to in this section shall be open at all times to the inspection of the Chief Medical Officer and the Commissioner of Police, on the written authority of the Attorney-General, and shall be produced whenever required by any court, magistrate or coroner, in the course of any inquiry or investigation which such court, magistrate or coroner has authority to institute or hold.

7. Save as provided in this Act, no manufacturer, importer, wholesaler, jobber or agent shall sell any drug or device to any person, firm or corporation other than-

Restriction on sale of drugs and devices.

(a)
a medical practitioner;
(b)
a dentist;
(c)
a pharmacist;
(d)
a veterinary surgeon;
(e)
a public hospital or a licensed private hospital;
(f)
a manufacturer, importer, wholesaler, jobber or agent dealing in drugs;
(g)
an institution or agency approved in writing by the Minister:

Provided that nothing herein contained shall be deemed to interfere with the business of wholesale dealers lawfully supplying industrial chemicals or other articles in the ordinary course of wholesale dealing if such articles are not manufactured, sold or represented for use as drugs.

8. Every drug dispensed from a medical prescription shall be placed in a box, bottle, vessel, wrapper or other receptacle bearing a label giving instructions as to how it is to be used according to the directions furnished by the medical practitioner who has prescribed it.

How medicines to be dispensed.

Poisons

9. (1) It shall be unlawful for a licensee or other person authorised to sell poison by this Act, to sell any poison, whether by wholesale or retail, unless the box, bottle, vessel, wrapper or cover, in which such poison is contained, be distinctly labelled with a red label bearing the name of the article and the word "Poison" with the name and address of the seller of the poison.

Regulating sale of poisons.

(2) The poisons which are mentioned and described in the first part of the Second Schedule to this Act or which may hereafter be added thereto shall not be sold to any person unknown to the seller unless introduced by some person known to the seller.

(3) Every licensee, or other person authorised under this Act to sell poison, shall keep a register in which on every sale of poison he shall, before delivery, make or cause to be made an entry stating the date of the sale, the name, occupation and address of the person to whom he supplies the poison, the name and quantity of the poison sold, and the purpose for which it is stated by the purchaser to be required; to which entry shall be affixed the signature of the purchaser and of the person if any who introduced him, and of the seller. Such register shall be open at all times to the inspection of the Chief Medical Officer and the Commissioner of Police:

Provided that-

(a)
nothing in this subsection contained shall apply to sales by wholesale to retail dealers in the ordinary course of wholesale dealing or to any medicine supplied by a licensee on the prescription of a medical practitioner;
(b)
such medicine be labelled as required by subsection (1) of this section;
(c)
the provisions of section 6 of this Act be complied with.

10. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 9 of this Act, upon the sale by a licensee of preparations of poisons in commercial and non-medical form for use only as vermin killers, subsection (2) of section 9 shall not apply to such sale. Furthermore it shall not, upon such sale, be incumbent upon a licensee to require that the signature of the purchaser and of the person, if any, who introduced the purchaser to the licensee be affixed to the entry concerning such sale in the register of the licensee.

Modification of restrictions on sale of certain preparations of poisons.

11. No person shall sell arsenic to any person other than a person of full age.

Restrictions as to sale of arsenic.

12. No person shall sell any arsenic unless the same be, before the sale thereof, mixed with soot or indigo in proportion of one ounce of soot or half an ounce of indigo at the least to one pound of the arsenic, and so in proportion for any greater or less quantity:

Provision for colouring arsenic.

Provided that-

(a)
where such arsenic is stated by the purchaser to be required, not for use in agriculture, but for some other purpose for which such admixture would according to the representation of the purchaser render it unfit, such arsenic may be sold without such admixture in a quantity of not less than one pound at any one time;
(b)
this Act shall not extend to the sale of arsenic when the same forms part of the ingredients of any medicine required to be made up or compounded according to the prescription of a medical practitioner, a dentist or veterinary surgeon, or to the sale of arsenic by wholesale to retail dealers upon orders in writing in the ordinary course of wholesale dealing.

13. In the construction of sections 11 and 12 of this Act the word "arsenic" shall include arsenious acid and the arsenites, arsenic acid and the arsenates and all other colourless poisonous preparations of arsenic.

Arsenic to include arsenious compounds.

Miscellaneous

14. Whoever commits a breach of any of the provisions of this Act shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction for a first offence to a penalty of fifty dollars and for a second offence or any subsequent offence to a penalty of one hundred dollars.

Penalties.

15. All penalties imposed by this Act shall be recovered in a summary manner before a magistrate in the manner prescribed by law in that behalf.

Recovery of penalties.

16. Nothing in this Act shall render unlawful the dispensing or administration of drugs by registered nurses in the course of duty with the approval and under the supervision of a medical practitioner.

Privileges of nurses.

17. Nothing in this Act shall-

Exemptions.

(a)
affect or interfere with the rights or privileges conferred upon a medical practitioner by the Medical Act;
(b)
render unlawful the selling by any person of any drug or device to a medical practitioner, dentist, veterinary surgeon or pharmacist;
(c)
render unlawful the compounding, dispensing, selling, or supplying by a medical practitioner or dentist of such drugs or devices as he may prescribe in the course of the practise of his profession;
(d)
render unlawful the compounding, dispensing, selling or supplying of veterinary medicine by a veterinary surgeon in the course of the practise of his profession;
(e)
render unlawful the carrying on of the business of wholesale dealers in supplying drugs or devices to persons entitled to sell them by retail, provided the containers in which they are supplied are marked or labelled in accordance with the provisions of this Act, or of any other Act;
(f)
render unlawful the compounding, dispensing or supplying of drugs or devices in any hospital or institution approved or licensed under any Act or by the Minister.

FIRST SCHEDULE (Section 3(4))

Alum

Ashton & Parsons Teething

Bicarbonate of Soda

     Powders

Benzol

Alka Seltzer

Carbon Bisulphide

Chooz

Cotton Root

Macleans Indigestion Powder

Cream of Tartar

& tablets

Camphor

Rennies Tablets

Chlorinated Lime

Bisodol Powder & Tablets

Chloride of Lime

Dodds Dyspepsia Tablets

Cochineal

S.S.S. Tablets

Essence of Peppermint

Ironised Yeast Tablets

Formaldehyde Solution

Kwells Seasick Tablets

Glucose

Ex Lax

Incense

Feen-a-mint

Aspirin Tablets

Kruschen Salts

A.P.C. Tablets

Andrews Liver Salts

Epsom Salts

Enos Fruit Salts

Glauber Salts

Magnesia Tablets

Saccharin Tablets

Dodds Diamond Dinner Pills

Throat Pastilles or Tablets

Amosan

Children's Laxatives

Arcito

Magnesia (in Blocks)

Chinaroid

Senna Leaves

Cystex

Senna Pods

Formode

Rhubarb Root

Hynox

Boric Powder

Mendaco

Quinine Tablets

Nixoderm

Quinine Capsules

Rogena

Sulphur Flowers

Via-Tabs

Cough Drops (Simple)

Dead Shots for Worms

666 Tablets

Dodds Kidney Pills

Scoot Ointment

Dodds Ointment

IN SEALED VIALS

Calamine Lotion

Liquifruita

Camphorated Oil

Norwich Baby Cough Syrup

Cod Liver Oil

Pepto Bismol

Mercurochrome Solution

S.S.S. Liquid

Glycerin

Phosferine Liquid

Oil of Eucalyptus

Ferrol Compound

Aromatic Spirits of Ammonia

Nutrophos

Sweet Spirits of Nitre

Aloes Bitters

Spirits of Camphor

Haleys M.O.

Friar's Balsam

Castoria

Castor Oil

Magnesia Liquid

Tincture of Iodine

Mineral Oil

Simple Eye Lotions

Minards Liniment

Gripe Mixtures

Sloans Liniment

Vicks Vatronol

Absorbine Jr.

Vicks Vaporub

Omega Oil

Vicks Cough Syrup

Rub-my-tism

Buckleys Mixture & Rub

Spirits of Turpentine

Jack & Jill Mixture & Rub

Rubbing Alcohol

666 Liquid

Rubbing Alcohol with Winter-

Thermogene Rub

green

Scotts Emulsion

Dettol

Zal

Patent and Proprietary medicines approved by the Minister and not containing any drug required to be sold on prescription only or any dangerous drug within the meaning of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

DEVICES

Zinc Oxide Plasters

Bandages (Medicated)

Cotton Wool

Elastic Adhesive Plaster (Plain)

Lint

Elastic Adhesive Plaster

Bandages (Plain)

(Medicated)

SECOND SCHEDULE (Sections 2 and 9(2))

FIRST PART

Aconite and its preparations
Alkaloids-all poisonous vegetable alkaloids and their salts
Antimony, compounds of
Atropine and its preparations
Cantharides and its preparations except emplastrum Carbolic Acid
Cocaine and its salts
Corrosive sublimate and its preparations
Cyanides of potassium and all metallic cyanides and preparations of such articles
Emetic tartar
Ergot of rye and its preparations
Mercuric Chloride (Corrosive sublimate)
Morphine and its salts
Oxalic Acid
Picrotoxin
Prussic acid and its preparations
Savin and its oils
Strychnine and its preparations
Vermin killers if preparations of poisons in this Part of this Schedule

SECOND PART

Almonds, Essential oils of (unless deprived of its prussic acid) Belladonna, alkaloids of
Carbolic acid, liquid preparations of, and its homologues containing more than 3 per cent of these substances
Chloroform
Chloral hydrate and its preparations
Cocaine, preparations of
Digitalis and its preparations
Lead, sugar of
Mercuric iodide
Mercuric sulphocyanide
Morphine, preparations of
Nux Vomica and its preparations
Opium and all preparations of opium or of poppies
Precipitate, white (ammoniated mercury)
Strophanthus and its preparations
Vermin killers not included in the first Part of this Schedule
Precipitate, red (red oxide or mercury)


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