The Misuse of Drugs Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

Interpretation

2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(1) shall apply to these regulations as it applies to a measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

(2) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“the Act” means the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971;

“authorised as a member of a group” means authorised by virtue of being a member of a class as respects which the Department has granted an authority under and for the purposes of regulation 8(3), 9(3) or 10(3) which is in force, and “his group authority”, in relation to a person who is a member of such a class, means the authority so granted to that class;

“the Department” means the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety;

“document” has the same meaning as in Part I of the Civil Evidence Act (Northern Ireland) 1971(2);

“exempt product” means a preparation or other product consisting of one or more component parts, any of which contains a controlled drug, where—

(a)

the preparation or other product is not designed for administration of the controlled drug to a human being or animal;

(b)

the controlled drug in any component part is packaged in such a form, or in combination with other active or inert substances in such a manner, that it cannot be recovered by readily applicable means or in a yield which constitutes a risk to health; and

(c)

no one component part of the product or preparation contains more than one milligram of the controlled drug or one microgram in the case of lysergide or any other N-alkyl derivative of lysergamide;

“health prescription” means a prescription issued by a doctor or a dentist under the National Health Service Act 1977(3), the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978(4), the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972(5) or the National Health Service (Isle of Man) Acts 1948 to 1979 (Acts of Tynwald) or upon a form issued by a local authority for use in connection with the health service of that authority;

“Health and Social Services Board” means a Health and Social Services Board established under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972;

“installation manager” and “offshore installation” have the same meanings as in the Mineral Workings (Offshore Installations) Act 1971(6);

“master” and “seamen” have the same meanings as in the Merchant Shipping Act 1995(7);

“medicinal product” has the same meaning as in the Medicines Act 1968(8);

“officer of customs and excise” means an officer within the meaning of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979(9);

“prescription” means a prescription issued by a doctor for the medical treatment of a single individual, by a dentist for the dental treatment of a single individual or by a veterinary surgeon or veterinary practitioner for the purposes of animal treatment;

“register” means a bound book and does not include any form of loose leaf register or card index;

“registered pharmacy” has the same meaning as in the Medicines Act 1968;

“retail dealer” means a person lawfully conducting a retail pharmacy business or a pharmacist engaged in supplying drugs to the public at a health centre within the meaning of the Medicines Act 1968;

“sister or acting sister” includes any male nurse occupying a similar position;

“wholesale dealer” means a person who carries on the business of selling drugs to persons who buy to sell again.

(2) In these regulations any reference to a regulation or schedule shall be construed as a reference to a regulation contained in these regulations or, as the case may be, to a schedule to these regulations, and any reference in a regulation or schedule to a paragraph shall be construed as a reference to a paragraph of that regulation or schedule.

(1)

1954 c. 33 (N.I.)

(2)

1971 c. 36 (N.I.)

(3)

1977 c. 49

(4)

1978 c. 29

(5)

S.I. 1972/1265 (N.I. 14)

(6)

1971 c. 61

(7)

1995 c. 21

(8)

1968 c. 67

(9)

1979 c. 2