HARRY HUGHES, Governor

511

The only other changes are in style.

NOTE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY: This section consolidates
into one section the numerous and diverse
criminal provisions that appear throughout the
Pharmacy law in present Art. 43.

This approach was taken only after deliberating
extensively and conferring with the members of
the General Assembly who are assigned as
Legislative Consultants to the Health Committee
of the Commission to Revise the Annotated Code.
Compelled by the haphazard and illogical approach
found in the present law, the Commission decided
to include in this draft significant substantive
changes for your consideration.

The criminal penalties in the present Pharmacy
law are inexplicably diverse. However, all of
the present penalties are extremely minor as
compared to the penalties set forth in the other
health occupation laws. In the present Pharmacy
law, there is no coherent scheme as to the
severity of the penalty for a given violation,
and the present provisions do not distinguish in
severity between the most serious and the most
minor offenses.

As revised in this section, the Commission
proposes to provide a standard $100 penalty for
the more minor criminal offenses under the title.
Then, in conformity with the approach taken under
the present law for the other health occupations,
the Commission proposes a more severe penalty for
the most serious violations under this title.
Duplicating the comparable penalty in the present
subtitle on Occupational Therapists, enacted in
1978, the proposed penalty is a fine not
exceeding $1,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 1
year or both.

The Commission also notes that subsection (a)(7)
of this section proposes to apply the $100
penalty provision under subsection (a) of this
section to a violation of § 12-506 of this title,
which sets forth affirmative requirements
regarding the storage of drugs, medicines, and
devices.

The substantive revision of this section was
openly and fully deliberated at public meetings,
where it received no opposition as to either the
concept or the proposed specifics. If the
General Assembly accepts this revision, the
revisor's note to this section will indicate that
substantive changes have been made.