Law library · Sierra Leone · The Undesirable Advertisements Ordinance
Section 7: Penalty.
Status not yet checkedThe Undesirable Advertisements Ordinance, Sierra Leone
CHAPTER 114.
UNDESIRABLE ADVERTISEMENTS.
20 of 1945.
An Ordinance to Prohibit and Restrict Certain Kinds of 43 of 1946.
Undesirable Advertisements. to of 1947.
[* .]
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Undesirable Advertisements Ordinance; it shall apply to the Colony and Protectorate
and shall come into force on such day as the Governor may fix
by notice in the Gazette.
Short title.
*
2. In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires- !~!:~re
" venereal disease " means syphilis, gonorrhcea, soft chancre
or other genito-urinary diseases in any of their forms;
" medicine " means any kind of medicament or other
curative or preventive substance, and whether a proprietary
medicine or preparation, packed goods or patent medicine or
preparation;
* It seems that this Ordinance has not yet come into operation. There was published
in the Sierra Leone Royal Gazette No. 3964, dated the 31st December, 1946, Government
960. Notice No.
It was thereby notified that the Ordinance would come into force on
the lst January, 1948. Subsequently and before that appointed date, it was notified, h<
Government Notice No. 814 published in the Royal Gazette No. 4040, dated the
20th November, 1947, that the Governor had cancelled the former Notice, No. 960 of
1946; and also that the date on which the Ordinance would come into operation would be
notified by a subsequent Government Notice. There does not appear to have been any
subsequent notification.
Prohibition
of advertisements
relating to
certain
diseases.
Cap. 114] Undesirable Advertisements
" patent or proprietary medicine " means any medicine
held out by advertisement as efficacious for the prevention
cure or relief of any malady, ailment, infirmity or disorder
affecting human beings and
(a) which is sold under a trade name or trade mark to
the use of which any person has or claims or purports to
have any exclusive right, or
(b) of which any person has or claims or purports to
have the exclusive right of manufacture or for the making
of which any person has or claims or purports to have any
secret process or protection by letters patent;
"surgical appliance" includes any device which purports
to be or is represented, directly or by implication, as being
such an appliance;
"advertisement" includes any notice, circular, .label,
wrapper or other document, or any canvassing.
3. (I) No person shall take any part in the publication of any
advertisement by any method whatsoever, referring to the sale,
supply, or to an offer to sell, or supply any medicine or surgical
appliance, or referring to the administration of, or to an offer to
administer any treatment to the public whether directly or
indirectly or by implication as being effective for the purpose
of treatment of human beings for any of the following purposes-
(a) for the cure of venereal diseases;
(b) for the prevention, relief or cure of Bright's disease,
cancer, consumption or tuberculosis, lupus, diabetes, epilepsy
or fits, locomotor ataxy, paralysis, or infantile paralysis;
(c) for the cure of arterio-sclerosis, septicrnmia, diphtheria,
dropsy, erysipelas, gallstones, kidney stones and bladder
stones, goitre, heart disease, tetanus or lockjaw, pleurisy,
pneumonia, scarlet fever, smallpox, trachoma, amenorrhma,
hernia or rupture, blindness or any structural or organic
ailment of the auditory system;
(d) for the cure of any habit associated with sexual indulgence or of any ailment associated with those habits or for
the promotion of sexual virility, desire or fertility or for the
restoration, or stimulation of the mental faculties.
(2) In any proceedings for a contravention of any of the
provisions of the foregoing sub-section, it shall be a defence
for the person charged to prove-
Undesirable Advertisements [Cap. 114
(a) that the advertisement to which the proceedings relate
was published only in a publication of a technical character
intended for circulation mainly amongst persons of the
following classes, or of one or some of them-
(i) duly registered medical practitioners or dentists;
(ii) duly registered or licensed chemists and druggists or
dispensers;
(iii) duly registered midwives;
(iv) the governing body, managers of a hospital, infirmary and mental hospital; or
(b) that the said advertisement was published in connection with an application for a patent or trade mark
submitted to the appropriate authority so far as may be
requisite for the purpose of the application.
(3) Nothing in this section shall apply to any advertisement
published by the authority of or with the sanction of the
Director of Medical Services.
4. (1) No person shall take any part in the publication of any
advertisement by any method whatsoever, referring to the sale
or supply of, or to an offer to sell or supply, any patent or
proprietary medicine to the public, whether directly or indirectly, without disclosing in the advertisement the following
information-
(a) the name and address of the manufacturer;
(b) the name and address of any one or more of the manufacturer's authorised representatives in Sierra Leone, where
the patent or proprietary medicine is not of local manufacture;
(c) the retail price of the patent or proprietary medicine in
Sierra Leone;
(d) the purpose for which the patent or proprietary
medicine is recommended by the manufacturer.
(2) Where the patent or proprietary medicine is not of local
manufacture, the manufacturer shall appoint one or more
authorised representatives in Sierra Leone. Without prejudice
to the liability of any other person for contravening the provions of this section, any authorised representative of a manufacturer in Sierra Leone shall be personally responsible for any
contravention of this section by whomsoever committed in
respect of the patent or proprietary medicine belonging to the
Restriction
of advertisements of
patent or
proprietary
medicine.
43 of 1946.
10 of 1947.
Disclosure
of composition of
medicine~.
43 of 1946.
Cap. 151.
Cap. 114] Undesirable Advertisements
manufacturer whom he represents, unless he shall prove to the
satisfaction of the Court that the contravention was committed
without his knowledge and that he had taken all reasonable
means to prevent the contravention.
5. (I) Subject to the provisions of this Ordinance, no person
shall-
(a) sell by retail any article consisting of or comprising a
substance recommended as a medicine; or
(b) supply any such article as a sample for the purpose of
inducing persons to buy by retail the substance of which it
consists or which it comprises;
unless there is written so as to be clearly legible on the article
or a label affixed thereto, or, if the article is sold or supplied as
aforesaid in a container, on the container or a label affixed
thereto or, if the article is sold or supplied as aforesaid in more
than one container, on the inner container or a label affixed
thereto-
(i) the appropriate designation of the substance so recommended, or of each of the active constituents thereof, or of
each of the ingredients of which it has been compounded; and
(ii) in a case where the appropriate designation of each of
the active constituents or the ingredients is written as aforesaid, the appropriate quantitative particulars of the constitutents or ingredients ; and
(iii) the retail price of the article in Sierra Leone:
Provided that this sub-section shall not apply to any article
made up and supplied for the use of a particular person, being
an article prescribed by reference to the needs of that person.
(2) In the preceding sub-section-
(a) the expression "appropriate designation", in relation
to a substance, constituent or ingredient, means-
(i) in a case where the substance, constituent or ingredient is a poison included in the Poisons List, the name
with which the container of the poison is for the time being
required to be labelled in pursuance of paragraph (c) of
section 31 of the Medical Practitioners, Dentists and
Druggists Ordinance;
(ii) in a case where the substance, constituent or ingredient is not such a poison and is described in any of the
monographs contained in the edition of the British Pharmacopceia or the British Pharmaceutical Codex which was
Undesirable Advertisements [Cap. 114
last published before the date on which the article was sold
or supplied, the description set out at the head of that
monograph;
(iii) in a case where the substance, constituent or ingredient is not such a poison and is not so described, the
accepted scientific name, or other name descriptive of the
true nature, of the substance, constituent or ingredient;
(b) the expression "appropriate quantitative particulars,"
in relation to the active constituents or the ingredients of a
substance, means--
(i) the appropriate percentage of each of those constituents or ingredients contained in the substance or the
approximate quantity of each of those constituents or
ingredients contained in the article sold or supplied; or
(ii) in a case where the said article consists of or comprises a number of separate portions of the substance,
either the approximate percentage or quantity aforesaid,
or the approximate quantity of each of the constituents or
ingredients contained in each portion; and
(c) the expression "container" includes a wrapper.
6. No person shall take any part in the publication of any Prohibition
of advertiseadvertisement referring to any article, or articles of any ments
description, in terms which are calculated to lead to the use of relating to
that article or articles of that description for procuring the abortion.
miscarriage of women.
7. If any person acts in contravention of any of the pro- Penalty.
visions of this Ordinance, he shall be guilty of an offence and
liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding fifty
pounds, or to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a
period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and
imprisonment, provided that a prosecution for any such offence
shall not be instituted without the consent of the Attorney
General.
Read the whole lawDownload PDFAsk Tima what this means
Check the current official version before relying on this text. MiLAWYER shares legal information, not legal advice.