XN000022-1995-06-21 — Page 39

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Pharmacy and poisons ordinance and regulations

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in moving a motion on the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance, Pharmacy and Poisons (Amendment) Regulation 1995 and Poisons List (Amendment) Regulation 1995 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

I move the motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.

The Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation regulate, inter alia, the registration of pharmaceutical products.

The Amendment Regulations seek, inter alia, to revise penalties provided for under the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations, which include penalties for offences related to illegal sales of drugs. They also seek to amend the classification of certain drugs and to add new drugs to facilitate up-to-date controls.

Currently, the maximum penalties stipulated in the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations are lighter for a first or second offence than for a third or subsequent offence.

The penalties for a first or second offence are a fine of $2,500 and $5,000 respectively. Those for a third or subsequent offence are a fine of $10,000 and imprisonment for 12 months. This is still lower than the maximum penalty provided in the Ordinance of a fine of $30,000 and imprisonment for 12 months.

If approved, the Amendment Regulations will abolish the different classifications for first, second and third offences so that, once convicted, a person will be liable to a much higher penalty than before even if he is a first-time or second-time offender.

The penalty levels prescribed in the Regulations have been in force since 1978 and were last revised in 1987. They no longer reflect the severity of the offences and we therefore consider it necessary to increase them.

The Amendment Regulations, therefore, also seek to raise the maximum penalties provided for in the Regulations from a fine of $10,000 and imprisonment for 12 months to the current maximum penalties stipulated in the Ordinance, which are a fine of $30,000 and imprisonment for 12 months. We do so by equating automatically the penalties prescribed in the Regulations to the maximum levels capped by the Ordinance and we hope that by doing so, the Amendment Regulations will provide a much greater deterrent effect in combating problems such as illegal sales of drugs.