Benzodiazepines and Other Targeted Substances Regulations

Marginal note:Notice to cease providing targeted substances

• 79 (1) In the circumstances set out in subsection (2), the Minister must issue a notice to the persons and authorities specified in subsection (3) advising them that

  • (a) licensed dealers and pharmacists practising in the notified pharmacies must not sell or provide any targeted substance to the pharmacist or the practitioner named in the notice;

  • (b) pharmacists practising in the notified pharmacies must not fill a prescription or order for any targeted substance provided by the practitioner named in the notice; or

  • (c) both paragraphs (a) and (b) apply with respect to the practitioner named in the notice.

• Marginal note:Circumstances

  (2) The notice must be issued if the pharmacist or practitioner named in the notice has

  • (a) made a request to the Minister in accordance with subsection 57(1) or section 62, as the case may be, to issue the notice;

  • (b) been found, by the provincial professional licensing authority in the province in which the pharmacist or practitioner is practising, to have contravened a rule of conduct established by that authority and the authority has requested the Minister in writing to issue the notice; or

  • (c) been found guilty in a court of law of a designated drug offence or of an offence under these Regulations.

• Marginal note:Recipients

  (3) The notice must be issued to

  • (a) all licensed dealers;

  • (b) all pharmacies within the province in which the pharmacist or practitioner named in the notice is authorized or entitled to practise and is practising;

  • (c) the provincial professional licensing authority of the province in which the pharmacist or practitioner named in the notice is authorized or entitled to practise;

  • (d) any provincial professional licensing authority in another province that has made a request to the Minister to issue the notice; and

  • (e) any pharmacies in an adjacent province in which a prescription or order from the pharmacist or practitioner named in the notice may be filled.

• Marginal note:Other circumstances

  (4) Subject to subsection (5), the Minister may issue the notice described in subsection (1) to the persons and authorities specified in subsection (3), if the Minister, on reasonable grounds, believes that the pharmacist or practitioner named in the notice

  • (a) has contravened a provision of the Act or the regulations;

  • (b) has, on more than one occasion, self-administered a targeted substance under a self-directed prescription or order or, in the absence of a prescription or order, contrary to accepted pharmaceutical, medical, dental or veterinary practice;

  • (c) has, on more than one occasion, prescribed, administered or provided a targeted substance to a person who is a spouse, common-law partner, parent or child of the pharmacist or practitioner, including a child adopted in fact, contrary to accepted pharmaceutical, medical, dental or veterinary practice; or

  • (d) is unable to account for a quantity of targeted substance for which the pharmacist or practitioner was responsible under these Regulations.

• Marginal note:Measures before issuance

  (5) In the circumstances described in subsection (4), the Minister must not issue the notice referred to in subsection (1) until the Minister has

  • (a) consulted with the provincial professional licensing authority of the province in which the pharmacist or practitioner to whom the notice relates is authorized or entitled to practise;

  • (b) given that pharmacist or practitioner an opportunity to present reasons why the notice should not be issued; and

  • (c) considered

    • (i) the compliance history of the pharmacist or practitioner in respect of the Act and the regulations made or continued under it, and

    • (ii) whether the actions of the pharmacist or practitioner pose a risk to security, public health or safety, including the risk of the targeted substance being diverted to an illicit market or use.