SALE OF "DRUGS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 210, 6 September 1939, Page 7

SALE OF "DRUGS."

PHARMACY BILL.

ANOMALIES ALLEGED.

BUSINESSMEN CONCERNED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Anomalies in the Pharmacy Bill were referred to by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce in a letter read at last night's meeting of the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.

In a letter to the Associated Chambers of Commerce, a copy of which was enclosed, the Canterbury Chamber wrote, inter alia: "An examination of the Pharmacy Bill shows that it is a type of exactment that has become increasingly popular during recent years —an endeavour to divide the activities of the community into water-tight compartments without any consideration for the implications."

The effect of Clause 32 of the bill, it was stated, was to make it illegal for anyone but a chemist or the employee of a chemist to sell drugs. "Drugs," under the definitions clause, were substances declared to be drugs by Order-in-Council.

The proposed bill was a restraint of trade, wholesale and retail, particularly affecting grocers, said Mr. Frank Wilson. Representations had been made to the Government by different organisations stating that there would be drastic repercussions in, the trade if the bill went through. Under the bill practically anything could be designated a drug. One could well imagine'the inconvenience in hundreds and hundreds of country districts where there were no chemist's shops if many ordinary house-; hold lines at present stocked by grocersj were brought within the framework of the Act.

It was decided to refer the question to the Associated Chambers of Commerce lor immediate action. I