This Act is called the Medicines Act 1981. You can refer to it by this name. The Governor-General will decide when this Act starts. This Act will start on a date chosen by the Governor-General. The Governor-General can choose different start dates for different parts of this Act. You can find out more about how this works in the Legislation Act 2019, specifically in Part 3. When the Governor-General makes an order about this Act, it is called secondary legislation.

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This page was last updated on 27 October 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM53794.

Topics:

Health and wellbeing > Public healthHealth and wellbeing > Healthcare servicesGovernment and voting > Government departments

Medicines Act 1981, or

"Keeping You Safe with Medicines and Medical Devices"

2: Interpretation, or

"What special words mean in the Medicines Act 1981"

1Short Title and commencement

This Act may be cited as the Medicines Act 1981.
This Act shall come into force on a date to be appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council, and different dates may be so appointed in respect of different provisions of this Act.
An order under this section is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

Notes

Section 1(2): this Act (except section 21(1)(a)) brought into force, on 1 August 1984, by the Medicines Act Commencement Order 1984 (SR 1984/142).
Section 1(3): inserted, on 28 October 2021, by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).