April 23, 1920 (13th Parliament, 4th Session)

Mr. ROWELL:

When the resolution upon which the Bill is founded was before the House I explained that the object of the Bill was to enable the Government to carry out its obligation under the International Opium Convention which was signed at The Hague in 1912, and went into effect in January of this year by virtue of the provisions of the Treaty of Peace. Representations have been made by the druggists of the country in reference to the form of the Bill. These representations have been considered and when the Bill goes into committee I intend submitting two amendments. After reading these to the House I intend moving the adjournment of the debate. The amendments will be in the form of two new subsections, first, a subsection which will repeal the existing subsection (1) of section (5) of the Opium and Drug Act of 1911, and will substitute for it a new section which is identical with the original section except that it leaves out all reference to the preservation of a record of the sales and

changes the penalties. The record o>f sales is dealt with in subsection (5-A) in a fuller and more comprehensive way and therefore I propose to leave out those portions of section (5). As the penalties in section (5) and section (5-A) differ, I intend making the penalties under section (5) of the Act of 1911 the same as are now proposed under section (5-A) in the present Bill in order that there may be no confusion in prosecution and no question as to whether, a party is being prosecuted under section (5) or section (5-A). It is thought desirable to have the penalties the same. Therefore the amendment is:
(4) Section 5, subsection 1, of the said Act is1 hereby repealed and the following substituted therefor:
" Any person who deals in any drug, who gives, sells or furnishes any drug to any person other than a duly authorized and practising physician, veterinary surgeon or dentist, or to a bona fide wholesale druggist, or to a druggist carrying on business in a bona fide drug store, and any druggist who gives, sells or furnishes any drug except upon a written order or prescription signed by a duly authorized and practising physician, veterinary surgeon or dentist, or who, without the authority of the prescribing physician, veterinary surgeon, or dentist, uses any prescription to sell any drug on more than one occasion, shall be guilty of a criminal offence and shall be liable, upon summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars and costs and not less than five hundred dollars and costs, or to imprisonment for a t^rm not exceeding one year, or to both fine and imprisonment."
The other change I propose is to ask the committee to substitute for subsection (4) of the Bill as it was printed the following clause:
The provisions of section five-