The Board has recently become aware of a situation where veterinary locums, house call veterinarians or after hours veterinarians request supply of medicines from other veterinarians. 

This supply is considered to be wholesale supply and is prohibited under the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act 1966:

9   Prohibition on wholesale supply of certain substances for therapeutic use

1. A person who supplies by wholesale any poison or restricted substance for therapeutic use, except under, and in accordance with the conditions of, a wholesaler’s licence or authority issued under the regulations is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty:

(a)  20 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years, or both, if the offence involves a restricted substance of a kind prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this section, or

(b)  15 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both, in any other case.

1. A wholesaler’s licence authorises its holder to supply by wholesale poisons and restricted substances for therapeutic use in or on humans or both in or on humans and in or on animals.
2. A wholesaler’s authority authorises its holder to supply by wholesale poisons and restricted substances for therapeutic use only in or on animals.
3. This section does not apply to a poison specified in Schedule 5 or 6 of the Poisons List.
4. For the purposes of this section:

(a)  poisons or restricted substances are taken to be for use in or on animals if the poisons or restricted substances bear information that indicates that they are, or are otherwise represented as being, for use only in or on animals, and

(b)  poisons or restricted substances are taken to be for use in or on humans if they are not exclusively for use in or on animals.

Please note ‘supply by wholesale’ by definition is:

Supply by wholesale, in relation to a substance or goods, means:

(a)  supply of the substance or goods for the purposes of resupply, or

(b)  supply of an ingredient for the purposes of incorporation in the substance or goods, and includes supply of the substance or goods in wholesale quantities:

(c)  for use in a public institution, or

(d)  to persons who are authorised by the regulations to be supplied with wholesale quantities of the substance or goods.