EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

Amendment to A.C.T. Poisons and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance

Poisons and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance 1963

No. 1 of 1963

	The Poisons and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance 1933-1954 is designed to provide for a measure of control over the sale, supply or dispensing of poisons and dangerous drugs in the Australian Capital Territory.

	The most satisfactory means of controlling the sale of a drug is to restrict its supply to persons presenting a doctor’s or veterinary surgeon’s prescription, but under the Ordinance as it stands at present only biological preparations can be made available to the public on a “prescription only” basis.  There are numerous substances on which it would be most desirable to impose such a restriction but which are not biological preparations, and the Ordinance provides for only a limited degree of control over the supply of such substances.

	The National Health and Medical Research Council has made recommendations for uniform legislation throughout the Commonwealth dealing with poisons and dangerous drugs including a recommended schedule of substances to be made available only on presentation of a prescription.  A new Ordinance to replace the existing Poisons and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance and to accord with the recommendations of the National Health and Medical Research Council is currently being drawn up but is a major project unlikely to be completed for some time.

	Meanwhile it is considered essential that there should be a legislative provision empowering the Minister for Health to declare substances to be restricted substances for the purposes of the Ordinance, available to members of the public only on presentation of a doctor’s or veterinary surgeon’s prescription.

	The amending Ordinance is designed to achieve this end.