SALE OF CONTRACEPTIVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 267, 10 November 1937, Page 6

SALE OF CONTRACEPTIVES.

Tn your Monday's issue under the heading of "Social Evil" Mrs. David Xathan, if reported correctly by tlie Wellington "Evening Post," from wluoli the article was reprinted, stated that contraceptives and abortifacients could be bought at chemists* shops throughout the country, even by quite young children. The inference to be* taken from such a statement is that chemists as a body are such poor-minded individuals that they would prostitute every sense of decencv to the paltry gain associated with such sales. Such statements should never be made by people in authority, who evidently have not taken the trouble to discover tlie true position. May I be permitted to point out that chemists do not sell contraceptives to children, that chemists are not the only purveyors of contraceptives, that the sale of abortifacients is just as illegal as that of poisons, and that in every case where contraceptives have been sold to a junior investigation proved the sale was made by other than a chemist. Chemists, through the Pharmacy Board and Chemist Service Ouild, have repeatedly tried to have icontraceptives controlled and sold onlv under license, the control to include the importation as well as local manufacture. Whv chemists, who are highly respected members of the community carrying on a legitimate occupation, should ix! subjected to such insults through i ignorance of the position when the facts are easily ascertainable, is hard to understand. H. TRF.VELYAX KIXG. President. X.Z. Chemist Service Guild.