SALE OF MEDICINE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 17 October 1942, Page 5

SALE OF MEDICINE

CONTROL OF ADVERTISEMENTS BILL PUT THROUGH ALL STAGES (From Our Own Parliamentary Reporter! Wellington, This Day. “The idea is that all advertisements, whether they are in the press, periodicals, on the cinema screen, or given over the air, should bo controlled,” said the Minister of Health (Mr A. If. Nordmeyer) in the House of Representatives yesterday when moving the second reading of the Medical Advertisements Bill. He stressed the need for such a measure and said that something on the lines of this legislation had been enacted in other countries. Every claim made by advertisement to be able to cure disease would be subject to the Bill. A Medical Advertisements Board was to be set up. Opposition chorus: “Not another board?‘ The Minister said it would be the duty of the board to be satisfied about the claims made by medical advertisements. If the claims were not substantiated the proprietors of the remedy concerned would be told to desist from advertising the product, although that did not prevent its sale. The legislation did not cover proprietary medicines whose formulae were recognised by the medical profession. In Britain the Pharmacy and Medicine Act prohibited certain advertisements and there was legislation also in Canada. The desirability of such a measure had been put forward on many occasions in New Zealand. The Member for Ilurunui (Mr G. W. Forbes) had said that the public should be protected against quackery. The Bill was designed to do for human beings what other legislation had done for animals. The Bill was urgently needed to protect people from patent medicine vendors who made c'aims they could not substantiate and who took from the pockets o[ j the credulous money they could not afford.

The Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Holland) described the Bill as worthwhile. Apparently, however, there was no provision to prevent the sale of a proved worthless commodity. The Quackery Prevention Act passed years ago gave power to prevent the making of incorrect claims for a preparation, and to deal with incorrect description of ingredients, but the new feature of present legislation was that it set up another board. Examples of advertising of alleged cures, which he said were really vicious. were quoted by Mr T. H. McCombs (Government. Lyttelton), and he spoke also against altered and manufactured testimonials. The Institute of Chemistry would like to see some modifications to the Bill, one being in the direction of covering foods intended to maintain an existing state of good health. Such a Bill has been wanted for some time, said Mr H. S. S. Kyle (Independent, Riccarton). He recalled that at present there were more safeguards required in stock remedies than in preparations for human beings. He did not think the Bill went far enough. Support for the Bill was given by Mr W. S. Goosman (National. Waikato). who also said he wondered whether it was going far enough. Quack medicines had been a “ramp" for a long time. The principal constituent of many of them was water. He was a little disturbed at the setting up of another board. Mr J. A. Lee (Democratic Labour. Grey Lynn) said he was wholeheartedly in support of the Bill, but hp trusted that the Minister had no intention of looking at medicines from a profit angle but only from the point of view of their social value. The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. E. Parry) thought the Bill was absolutely necessary if its object was to prevent the advertising of the cure-all types of mixtures. Mr P. Carr (Government, Auckland West) said the Bill was many months overdue. Replying to the Second Reading debate the Minister said that there was no provision in the Bill for appeal against the decision of the board it set up, but where a question of fact was involved an appeal was hardly necessary. The Bill was put through the remaining stages and passed.