AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

PHARMACY ORDINANCE 1964

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

No. 22 of 1964

	Section 47 of the Pharmacy Ordinance currently provides –

(1)	that the latest edition of the British Pharmacopoeia shall apply in the Australian Capital Territory in relation to the standards of quality or composition of drugs and medicines prepared by pharmacists; and

(2)	that certain metric units shall be legal measurements.

2.	It is now considered desirable for the matter of legal measurements to be dealt with by the new Commonwealth weights and measures legislation, which provides for both metric and Imperial units of measurement.  Accordingly, it is necessary to omit from section 47 the reference to legal measurements.

3.	The opportunity has also been taken of revising the existing provision in relation to standards of composition and purity of drugs and medicinal preparations used by A.C.T. pharmacists.  The range of drugs and preparations for which standards are prescribed has been widened, firstly by applying the standards laid down in the Therapeutic Substances Act and Regulations (which cover not only the British Pharmacopoeia but also the British Pharmaceutical Codex and other drugs and preparations dealt with in the Therapeutic Substances Regulations).  Where no standard is laid down by or under that Act for a particular drug or preparation, the standard specified in the formulary issued by the Pharmaceutical Association of Australia applies.

4.	The provisions of the new section 47 relating to standards for drugs and preparations will not involve any actual change in the procedures currently followed by A.C.T. pharmacists.