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Medicines Act 1981

Enforcement

69: Procuring samples for analysis

You could also call this:

"Paying for samples to test medicines"

Illustration for Medicines Act 1981

When you want to get a sample of something to test it, you must pay the owner for it. You have to tell the owner what you plan to do with the sample. You might need to show the package or container the sample comes from. If the sample is for sale in a sealed container, you cannot be made to buy less than the whole container. There are some exceptions to these rules, like when you buy a sample from a vending machine. You must still pay for the sample, even if you do not follow the usual rules. If you are in charge of a sample, you must do what the officer asks, or you might commit an offence. The officer can take a sample without following the rules, but they cannot use the results in court. Getting a prescription medicine for testing is not the same as selling or supplying it. You can be considered the seller of a substance if you have it and might be selling it. You must follow the officer's demands, or you will break the law.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM56062.

Topics:
Health and wellbeing > Public healthHealth and wellbeing > Healthcare servicesMoney and consumer rights > Consumer protection
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"You don't have to reveal where you got your information in court."

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70: Analysis of sample and certificate of analyst, or

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Part 5Enforcement

69Procuring samples for analysis

  1. When an officer intends to procure a sample of a substance or article for the purposes of analysis, he shall—

  2. pay or tender the current market value of the sample to the owner thereof or the person from whom the sample is to be obtained:
    1. before or forthwith after obtaining the sample, inform the owner of the sample or the person from whom the sample is obtained of his intention to submit the sample to an analyst.

      1. For the purposes of subsection (1), an officer may require the person in possession of a substance or an article that the officer reasonably believes to be a medicine, or his employee or agent, to show and permit the inspection of any package or container enclosing the substance or article and to take therefrom the sample demanded.

      2. Where any such substance or article is kept for retail sale in an unopened container, no person shall be required by any officer to sell less than the whole of the contents of the container.

      3. Nothing in this section shall—

      4. apply to the procuring of a sample of a substance or article from a vending machine if the officer obtains the sample by properly making payment for it and no person present admits to being in charge of the machine:
        1. prevent an officer from taking or purchasing samples of substances or articles for examination otherwise than by way of analysis, but in any such case the officer shall pay or tender the current market value of the sample to the owner thereof or the person from whom the sample is to be obtained.

          1. Notwithstanding anything in this section,—

          2. an officer shall not be obliged to submit to an analyst any sample that he has obtained:
            1. an officer may inspect, select, and take or purchase any sample for the purposes of analysis without complying with those sections, but in that event no regard shall be had to the result of any such analysis in any proceedings before any court in respect of an offence against this Act or against any regulations made under this Act.

              1. The procuring of a prescription medicine by an officer under this section shall not, for the purposes of section 18(2), be a sale or supply of that medicine.

              2. Every person commits an offence against this Act who refuses or fails to comply with any demand or requisition made by an officer pursuant to this section.

              3. For the purposes of this section, every person who is in possession of any substance or article that, in the opinion of the officer, is intended for sale shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to be the seller of the substance or, as the case may be, the agent or employee of the seller.

              Compare
              • 1960 No 97 s 33(1)–(5)
              • 1969 No 7 s 23
              • 1979 No 27 s 53