SALE OF POISONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19235, 26 January 1926, Page 8

SALE OF POISONS.

A coroner in the South. Island has been moved to comment on the inconsistency of the law which imposes safeguards on the sale of poisons by chemists, yet allows them to be bought freely elsewhere. In the instance before him a compound intended for the destruction of insect pests had been employed by a woman to end her own life. She had obtained it after failing to induce chemists to sell her poison. There arc many other ways by which a fatal dose could have been obtained, elsewhere than at a pharmacy. The. safeguard is that people bent on doing mischief to themselves or someone else do not always realise the possible sources supply. I<? is as well they should not. In the ordinary way dangerous drugs are associated, with the chemist's shop, and nowhere else. The imposition of restrictions on sales over the pharmacist's counter is more necessary therefore than elsewhere. At the same time it seems reasonable that some degree of control should be exercised where well-known poisons are sold in other shops. It would not be easy to devise practicable methods which would not also make it too difficult to procure these substances for legitimate purposes. Yet there seems reason for the whole question to be considered comprehensively with a view to stopping some of the easiest and most obvious breaches in what purports to be a barrier against the purchase of poison by people who can have no valid excuse for having it in their possession.