AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Drugs of Dependence (Amendment) Act 1999
No. 23 of 1999
	
An Act to amend the Drugs of Dependence Act 1989
[Notified in ACT Gazette S16: 14 April 1999]
	The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory enacts as follows:
1. 	Short title 
	This Act may be cited as the Drugs of Dependence (Amendment) Act 1999.
2. 	Commencement
	This Act commences on the day on which it is notified in the Gazette. 
3. 	Principal Act
	In this Act, “Principal Act” means the Drugs of Dependence Act 1989.1
4. 	Drugs of dependence
	Section 58 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting after subsection (2) the following subsection:
“(2A) 	A medical practitioner is authorised to prescribe a drug of dependence for a drug dependent person without first obtaining the approval of the Chief Health Officer under subsection (2) if—
	(a)	the medical practitioner is satisfied that the person requires the use of the drug in the course of treatment as an in-patient in a hospital; and
	(b)	the drug is prescribed for a course of treatment for that person for a period not exceeding 14 days after the date of his or her admission.”.
5. 	Insertion
	After section 59 of the Principal Act the following section is inserted:
“59A. 	Morphine
“(1) 	The Chief Health Officer shall approve an application by a medical practitioner for the prescription of morphine for a person if the Chief Health Officer is satisfied that—
	(a)	a specialist has diagnosed the person to be suffering from a terminal illness and estimates the person’s life expectancy to be less than 1 year; and
	(b)	the morphine is for use by the person only for therapeutic purposes for the relief of pain.
“(2) 	In paragraph (1) (a)—
‘specialist’ means a medical practitioner who is recognised as a consultant physician or specialist in accordance with section 61 of the Health Insurance Act 1973 of the Commonwealth.”.
NOTE
Principal Act
1.	Reprinted as at 30 November 1996.  See also Acts Nos. 41, 70, 75, 96 and 127, 1997.
[Presentation speech made in Assembly on 29 October 1998]

©  Australian Capital Territory 1999