DANGEROUS DRUG

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 8

DANGEROUS DRUG

Fines Imposed On Two Charges WELLINGTON CHEMIST Three charges of failing to comply with the regulations in dispensing a dangerous drug (morphine), one charge of unlawfully supplying a dangerous drug, one of unlawfully dispensing a dangerous drug and two of. failing to make the appropriate entries in the poison register were preferred on October 28 last iu the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, against Benjamin Conant O’Connor, chemist, Wellington. After hearing evidence and legal argument, Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., adjourned the case. When it was called yetserday, Mr. O. 0. Mazengarb, for defendant, said be did not propose to offer any evidence. The Magistrate said that iu two ot the cases he had previously declared that convictions would be sustained and there would be convictions in the otherfive cases. . . , Outlining the case at the original hearing, the Crown prosecutor, Mt. W. 11. Cunningham, said that Dr. Hamilton Gilmer went to England in 1936 and died there in October, 1937, and that for 20 months from the end of 1936 till August, 1938, defendant was issuing morphine to a man on prescriptions purporting to be those of Dr. Gilmer.

Not Wilful Breach.

There had been no wrongful conduct on the part of O’Connor necessitating anything like a substantial penalty, said Mr. Mazengarb yesterday, and it had certainly not been a wilful breach. .Since defendant’s poisons register had been taken away, other breaches had been committed with the approval and under the direction of the department. Counsel asked that the conviction be confined to one charge and that the others be adjourned so that his client could consider lodging an appeal. The charges had been brought iu the nature of a test case, he said. The case was regarded, by the department as serious, and ‘ there had never 'been any suggestion that it was merely a test case, said Mr. Cunningham. Dr. Gilmer had died in England in 1937 ( yet for a period as late as August, 1938, defendant had been dispensing the drug on the prescription of a dead man, without making proper entries in the register. On the charge of dispensing a dangerous drug, O’Connor was fined £l2/10/- with costs 16/- and witnesses’ expenses 12/-, and for failing to make appropriate entries in the register he was fined £l2/10/-, with costs 10/-. Solicitor's fee, £2/2/-, was allowed on botii charges, the other charges being adjoourned.