21 U.S.C. § 209 — Poisons; book entry of sale; labels

submitted 111 years ago by ch. 74 to r/title-21-FOOD-AND-DRUGS · 739 words · no verdicts yet

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This law bans selling or delivering listed poisons — like arsenic, mercury, cyanide, opium, and belladonna — without checking the buyer's purpose, labeling the package "Poison," and, with some exceptions, recording the sale in a book kept for three years. It carves out doctors' orders, small medicinal doses, and certain wholesale sales.

This section is one continuous provision. It is illegal for anyone whose permanent loyalty is to the United States to sell or deliver a long list of poisonous substances — including compounds of antimony, arsenic, mercury, lead, and zinc; caustic soda and potash; ammonia solution; methyl alcohol; concentrated mineral acids; cyanide compounds; yellow phosphorus; carbolic acid; belladonna; cannabis indica; digitalis; and other named poisonous plants, oils, and alkaloids — except in the way this section describes. If the buyer is under eighteen, the seller also needs a written order from someone known or believed to be an adult. Before selling, the seller must find out that the buyer knows the substance is poisonous and wants it for a lawful purpose. The container must be plainly labeled with the substance's name, the word "Poison," the name of a suitable antidote when practical, and the seller's name and address. Except for ammonia solution and copper sulfate, the seller must also record, in a book kept for that purpose, the substance, the quantity, its purpose, the date, the buyer's name and address, and who made the sale. That book must be kept for at least three years after the last entry. None of this applies to substances given out on the order of someone the seller believes is a real, reputable doctor, dentist, or veterinarian. If a doctor's prescription is marked "Poison," the pharmacist must use a rough, colored "poison bottle" for liquids, or a poison label for dry substances. Manufacturers and wholesalers don't need to keep the sale record when selling these substances wholesale to licensed pharmacists, but the container must still be labeled with the substance's name, the word "Poison," and the seller's name and address. No poison label or sale record is required for antimony sulfide, zinc oxide or carbonate, paint colors ground in oil, or calomel; nor for a preparation containing one of these substances if a single package doesn't hold more than an adult medicinal dose; nor for liniments or ointments labeled "for external use only"; nor for pills, tablets, or lozenges meant for internal use if the recommended dose is no more than a quarter of an adult medicinal dose. Finally, no package counts as labeled "Poison" under this or any other section of this chapter unless the word "Poison" is printed clearly, in plain block letters, in red ink. Separately, neither this section nor section 207 lets anyone sell, give, or prescribe these drugs to a habitual user of the same drug — except a recognized, reputable doctor who, in good faith, prescribes what a patient under their care actually needs, as long as it isn't really meant to get around this rule.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation whose permanent allegiance is due to the United States to sell or deliver to any other person any of the following-described substances, or any poisonous compound, combination, or preparation thereof, to wit: The compounds of and salts of antimony, arsenic, barium, chromium, copper, gold, lead, mercury, silver, and zinc, the caustic hydrates of sodium and potassium, solution or water of ammonia, methyl alcohol, paregoric, the concentrated mineral acids, oxalic and hydrocyanic acids and their salts, yellow phosphorus, Paris green, carbolic acid, the essential oils of almonds, pennyroyal, tansy, rue, and savin; croton oil, creosote, chloroform, cantharides, or aconite, belladonna, bitter almonds, colchicum, cotton root, cocculus indicus, conium, cannabis indica, digitalis, ergot, hyoscyamus, ignatia, lobelia, nux vomica, physostigma, phytolacca, strophanthus, stramonium, veratrum viride, or any of the poisonous alkaloids or alkaloidal salts derived from the foregoing, or any other poisonous alkaloids or their salts, or any other virulent poison, except in the manner following, and, moreover, if the applicant be less than eighteen years of age, except upon the written order of a person known or believed to be an adult.

It shall first be learned, by due inquiry, that the person to whom delivery is about to be made is aware of the poisonous character of the substance and that it is desired for a lawful purpose, and the box, bottle, or other package shall be plainly labeled with the name of the substance, the word “Poison”, the name of at least one suitable antidote, when practicable, and the name and address of the person, firm, or corporation dispensing the substance. And before delivery be made of any of the foregoing substances, excepting solution or water of ammonia and sulphate of copper, there shall be recorded in a book kept for that purpose the name of the article, the quantity delivered, the purpose for which it is to be used, the date of delivery, the name and address of the person for whom it is procured, and the name of the individual personally dispensing the same; and said book shall be preserved by the owner thereof for at least three years after the date of the last entry therein. The foregoing provisions shall not apply to articles dispensed upon the order of persons believed by the dispenser to be recognized and reputable practitioners of medicine, dentistry, or veterinary surgery. When a physician writes upon his prescription a request that it be marked or labeled “Poison” the pharmacist shall, in the case of liquids, place the same in a colored glass, roughened bottle, of the kind commonly known in trade as a “poison bottle”, and, in the case of dry substances, he shall place a poison label upon the container. The record of sale and delivery above mentioned shall not be required of manufacturers and wholesalers who shall sell any of the foregoing substances at wholesale to licensed pharmacists, but the box, bottle, or other package containing such substance, when sold at wholesale, shall be properly labeled with the name of the substance, the word “Poison,” and the name and address of the manufacturer or wholesaler. It shall not be necessary, in sales either at wholesale or at retail, to place a poison label upon, nor to record the delivery of, the sulphide of antimony, or the oxide or carbonate of zinc, or of colors ground in oil and intended for use as paints, or calomel; nor in the case of preparations containing any of the substances named in this section, when a single box, bottle, or other package, or when the bulk of one-half fluid ounce or the weight of one-half avoirdupois ounce does not contain more than an adult medicinal dose of such substance; nor in the case of liniments or ointments sold in good faith as such, when plainly labeled “For external use only”; nor, in the case of preparations put up and sold in the form of pills, tablets, or lozenges, containing any of the substances enumerated in this section and intended for internal use, when the dose recommended does not contain more than one-fourth of an adult medicinal dose of such substance.

For the purpose of this and of every other section of this chapter no box, bottle, or other package shall be regarded as having been labeled “Poison” unless the word “Poison” appears conspicuously thereon, printed in plain, uncondensed gothic letters in red ink.

Source credit: (Mar. 3, 1915, ch. 74, § 7, 38 Stat. 820.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1915Enacted · Act of Mar. 3, 1915, ch. 74 · 38 Stat. 820

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 74 on 1915-03-03.

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