Sale of Drugs Act 1914

This Act is the Sale of Drugs Act 1914.

In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject‑matter or context —“analyst” means an analyst appointed under this Act;“Authority” means the Health Sciences Authority established under the Health Sciences Authority Act 2001;“Chief Executive of the Authority” means the person appointed under section 15 of the Health Sciences Authority Act 2001 to be the Chief Executive of the Authority;“drug” means any substance or mixture of substances used by man as a medicine whether internally or externally, and includes anaesthetics, but does not include such substances or mixtures of substances when sold otherwise than for medicinal purposes, and also includes face powders, dusting powders and toilet preparations whether or not advertised or described as a drug and for whatever purpose sold;“import”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means to bring or cause to be brought into Singapore by land, water or air from any place which is outside Singapore but does not include the bringing into Singapore by water or air of any goods which it is proved to be intended to be taken out of Singapore on the same vessel or aircraft on which they were brought into Singapore without any landing or transhipment within Singapore;“officer” means the Chief Executive of the Authority and includes any person who is appointed by him to exercise any of the powers of an officer under this Act;“package” includes every means by which goods for carriage or for sale are cased, covered, enclosed, contained or packed;“sale” or “sell” includes barter and exchange and also includes offering or attempting to sell or causing or allowing to be sold or exposing for sale or receiving or sending or delivering for sale or having in possession for sale or having in possession any drug knowing that the same is likely to be sold or offered or exposed for sale, and refers only to sale for human consumption or use.

“analyst” means an analyst appointed under this Act;

“Authority” means the Health Sciences Authority established under the Health Sciences Authority Act 2001;

“Chief Executive of the Authority” means the person appointed under section 15 of the Health Sciences Authority Act 2001 to be the Chief Executive of the Authority;

“drug” means any substance or mixture of substances used by man as a medicine whether internally or externally, and includes anaesthetics, but does not include such substances or mixtures of substances when sold otherwise than for medicinal purposes, and also includes face powders, dusting powders and toilet preparations whether or not advertised or described as a drug and for whatever purpose sold;

“import”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means to bring or cause to be brought into Singapore by land, water or air from any place which is outside Singapore but does not include the bringing into Singapore by water or air of any goods which it is proved to be intended to be taken out of Singapore on the same vessel or aircraft on which they were brought into Singapore without any landing or transhipment within Singapore;

“officer” means the Chief Executive of the Authority and includes any person who is appointed by him to exercise any of the powers of an officer under this Act;

“package” includes every means by which goods for carriage or for sale are cased, covered, enclosed, contained or packed;

“sale” or “sell” includes barter and exchange and also includes offering or attempting to sell or causing or allowing to be sold or exposing for sale or receiving or sending or delivering for sale or having in possession for sale or having in possession any drug knowing that the same is likely to be sold or offered or exposed for sale, and refers only to sale for human consumption or use.

The Chief Executive of the Authority may appoint a sufficient number of analysts and officers under this Act and make rules for the conduct of their duties.

Such analysts and officers shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of the Penal Code 1871.

Any officer may —

Any person claiming anything seized under this section may within 48 hours after the seizure complain thereof to a Magistrate’s Court, and the complaint may be heard and determined by the Court, which may either confirm or disallow the seizure wholly or in part and may order the article seized to be restored.

If within 48 hours after the seizure no complaint has been made, or if the seizure is confirmed, the article seized shall be forfeited to the Authority and shall be destroyed or otherwise disposed of so as to prevent its being used for human consumption.

Where the seizure of any drug is made under subsection (1)(c), the officer making the seizure shall forthwith give notice in writing of the seizure, in the form set out in the Schedule, to the owner or to the consignor or consignee or to the agent of the owner of the thing seized, if his name and address are attached thereto or are otherwise known to the officer and the address is in Singapore.

Any person who obstructs any officer in the exercise of his powers under this section shall be guilty of an offence.

On payment or tender to any person selling or making any drug or to his agent or employee of the current market value of the samples in this section referred to, any officer may at any place demand and select and take or obtain samples of the drug for the purpose of analysis.

Any such officer may require that person or his agent or employee to show and permit the inspection of the package in which the drug is at the time kept, and may take therefrom the samples demanded.

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

Any person who refuses or neglects to comply with any demand or requisition made by an officer in pursuance of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

Any person other than the seller may, on payment of the prescribed fee, together with the cost of the sample, require any officer to purchase a sample of any drug and submit the same for analysis.

When it is intended to submit any sample for analysis, the officer purchasing or otherwise procuring it shall, before or forthwith after procuring it, inform the seller or his agent selling the article or the person having charge of the article that he intends to have the sample analysed by an analyst.

Such officer shall thereupon divide the sample into 3 parts, and shall mark and seal or fasten up in such manner as its nature permits each such part, and shall offer one of those parts to the seller or his agent or the person having charge of the article.

Such officer shall subsequently deliver either personally or by registered letter another of those parts to an analyst, and shall retain the third of those parts.

Where a sample consists of a substance contained in unopened containers or packages and the division into parts of the substance contained in those containers or packages is not reasonably practicable or might affect the composition or impede the proper analysis of the contents, subsection (2) shall be deemed to be complied with if the officer procuring the sample divides the containers or packages into the requisite number of lots and deals with each lot as if it were a part in the manner provided by this section; and references in this Act to a part of a sample shall be construed accordingly.

The certificate of the analyst shall be in the prescribed form.

Where any method of analysis has been prescribed any analyst either for the prosecution or defence shall, in his certificate of analysis, declare that he has followed the prescribed method in his analysis.

A copy of the result of any analysis of any drug procured by an officer may be obtained from the analyst by the person from whom the article so analysed was purchased or obtained, on payment of such fee as may be prescribed.

No such copy of an analysis shall be used as an advertisement, and any person who so uses it shall be guilty of an offence.

If, in the opinion of an officer, there is reasonable ground for suspecting that any person is in possession of any drug or other substance for the purpose of sale or of manufacturing or preparing the drug for sale in breach of this Act, he may require that person to produce for his inspection or to produce to any specially authorised officer any books or documents dealing with the reception, possession, purchase, sale or delivery of any such drug or other substance.

Any of the officers mentioned in subsection (1) may make or cause to be made copies of or extracts from any such books or documents.

Such copies or extracts certified as such by any specially authorised officer shall, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to be true and correct copies or extracts.

Any person, who refuses or neglects to comply with any requisition made in pursuance of this section, shall be guilty of an offence.

Any officer who does not maintain the secrecy of all matters which come to his knowledge in the performance of his official duties under this section, or who communicates any such matter to any person whomsoever except for the purpose of carrying into effect this Act, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.

Any person commits an offence who sells —

Where regulations made under this Act contain provisions prescribing the composition of, or prohibiting or restricting the addition of any substance to, any drug, a purchaser of the drug shall, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed for the purposes of this section to have demanded a drug complying with the provisions of such regulations.

In proceedings under this section it shall not be a defence that the purchaser bought for analysis and therefore was not prejudiced.

Any person who commits any offence mentioned in this section shall for the first offence be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000, and for any subsequent offence under this section, whether of the same or a different nature, to a fine not exceeding $4,000:Provided that if any such offence is committed by the personal act, default or culpable negligence of the offender, the offender shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $4,000 or to 3 months’ imprisonment although it may be a first offence.

Any person who without authority opens, alters, breaks, removes or erases any mark, fastening or seal placed by any officer in pursuance of this Act upon any drug or upon any package, place, door or opening containing or affording access to any drug, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $500.

Any person who commits an offence under this Act or a breach of any regulations made thereunder for which a penalty is not expressly provided shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $400.

In the case of any conviction under this Act, the Magistrate’s Court may order that any drug to which the conviction relates and any similar drug found on the defendant’s premises or in his possession at the time of the commission of the offence, together with all packages or vessels containing the drug, shall be forfeited to the Authority.

Everything so forfeited to the Authority shall be disposed of as the Chief Executive of the Authority directs.

A notification of the name and occupation of any person who has been convicted of any offence under this Act, together with his place or places of business, the nature of the offence and the fine, forfeiture or other penalty inflicted shall, if the Magistrate’s Court so orders, be published by the Deputy Director of Medical Services (Health) in any newspaper circulating in Singapore or in any part thereof.

For the purposes of this Act any drug shall be deemed to be adulterated if —

it contains or is mixed or diluted with any substance which diminishes in any manner its nutritive or other beneficial properties as compared with such article in a pure and normal state and in an undeteriorated and sound condition, or which in any other manner operates or may operate to the prejudice or disadvantage of the purchaser or consumer;

any substance or ingredient has been extracted or omitted therefrom, and by reason of such extraction or omission the nutritive or other beneficial properties of the article as sold are less than those of the article in its pure and normal state or the purchaser or consumer is or may be in any manner prejudiced;

it contains or is mixed or diluted with any substance of lower commercial value than such article in a pure and normal state and in an undeteriorated and sound condition;

it does not comply with the prescribed standard; or

there is added to it any substance or if there is abstracted from it any constituent affecting injuriously the quality, constitution or potency of the drug when used in the proper manner.

For the purposes of this Act —

every person shall be deemed to sell any drug who sells it either on his own account or as the agent or employee of any other person; and

in the case of any sale by an agent or employee, his principal or employer shall be under the same liability as if he had effected the sale personally.

When any drug is sold or exposed or offered for sale, it shall, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to be sold or exposed or offered for sale for human consumption or use.

The purchase and sale of a sample of any drug under this Act for the purpose of analysis shall be deemed to be a purchase and sale of the drug for human consumption or use, unless the seller proves that the bulk from which the sample was taken was not offered, exposed or intended for sale for human consumption or use.

For the purposes of this Act every person shall be deemed to sell or to intend to sell any drug if he sells or intends to sell for human consumption or use any article of which such drug is a constituent.

All proceedings in respect of an offence under this Act or of a breach of any regulations made thereunder shall be taken in a summary manner before a Magistrate’s Court.

The summons in any such proceedings shall not be made returnable in less than 14 days from the day on which it is served.

A copy of the analyst’s certificate, if any, on which the prosecution is based shall be served with the summons.

When any drug has been purchased or procured from any person for test purposes, no proceedings in respect of the sale thereof or of any offence under this Act shall be instituted after the expiration of 28 days from the time of purchasing or procuring the same.

In a prosecution for selling any drug contrary to this Act or any regulations made thereunder, it shall be no defence that the defendant did not act wilfully, unless he also proves that he took all reasonable steps to ascertain that the sale of the drug would not constitute an offence under this Act or under any regulations made thereunder.