Colorado § 12-280-129 - Unlawful acts - civil fines.

§ 12-280-129. Unlawful acts - civil fines.

(1) It is unlawful:

(a) To practice pharmacy without a license;

(b) To obtain or dispense or to procure the administration of a drug by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, or subterfuge, by the forgery or alteration of an order, or by the use of a false name or the giving of a false address;

(c) To willfully make a false statement in any order, report, application, or record required by this article 280;

(d) To falsely assume the title of or falsely represent that one is a pharmacist, pharmacy technician, practitioner, or registered outlet;

(e) To make or utter a false or forged order;

(f) To affix a false or forged label to a package or receptacle containing drugs;

(g) To sell, compound, dispense, give, receive, or possess any drug or device unless it was sold, compounded, dispensed, given, or received in accordance with sections 12-280-120 to 12-280-125;

(h) Except as provided in section 12-280-125, to dispense a different drug or brand of drug in place of the drug or brand ordered or prescribed without the oral or written permission of the practitioner ordering or prescribing the drug;

(i) To manufacture, process, pack, distribute, sell, dispense, or give a drug, or the container or labeling of the drug, that, without authorization, bears the trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint, or device, or any likeness thereof, of a drug manufacturer, processor, packer, or distributor other than the person who in fact manufactured, processed, packed, or distributed the drug, container, or label and that thereby falsely purports or is represented to be the product of or to have been packed or distributed by the other drug manufacturer, processor, packer, or distributor;

(j) For an employer or an employer's agent or employee to coerce a pharmacist to dispense a prescription drug against the professional judgment of the pharmacist;

(k) For an employer, an employer's agent or employee, or a pharmacist to use or coerce to be used nonpharmacist personnel in any position or task that would require the nonpharmacist to practice pharmacy or to make a judgmental decision using pharmaceutical knowledge or in violation of the delegatory restrictions enumerated in section 12-280-118 (5);

(l) To dispense any drug without complying with the labeling, drug identification, and container requirements imposed by law;

(m) (I) To possess, sell, dispense, give, receive, or administer a drug or device that is adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of the "Colorado Food and Drug Act", part 4 of article 5 of title 25, or is a counterfeit drug.

(II) As used in this subsection (1)(m), "counterfeit drug" means a drug, or the container or labeling of a drug, that, without authorization, bears the trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint, or device or any likeness thereof of a drug manufacturer, processor, packer, or distributor other than the person who in fact manufactured, processed, packed, or distributed the drug and that falsely purports or is represented to be the product of, or to have been packed or distributed by, the drug manufacturer, processor, packer, or distributor whose trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint, or device or likeness thereof appears on the drug or its container or labeling.

(n) To practice as a pharmacy technician without a certification.

(2) (a) In addition to any other penalties that may be imposed under this part 1, a person who engages in an unlawful act under this section may be punished by a civil fine of not less than one thousand dollars and not more than ten thousand dollars for each violation. Fines imposed and paid under this section shall be deposited in the general fund in accordance with section 12-20-404 (6).

(b) This subsection (2) does not apply to a pharmacy technician.

Source: L. 2019: Entire title R&RE with relocations, (HB 19-1172), ch. 136, p. 1478, § 1, effective October 1; (1)(d) and (2) amended and (1)(n) added, (HB 19-1242), ch. 434, p. 3756, § 13, effective October 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 12-42.5-126 as it existed prior to 2019.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. The following annotations include cases decided under former provisions similar to this section.

Criminal provisions not overlapping. Former § 12-22-319 (now § 12-22-315) and this section do not proscribe the same conduct and hence do not violate the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. People v. Wellington, 633 P.2d 1390 (Colo. 1981); People v. Caponey, 647 P.2d 668 (Colo. 1982).

Board not required to issue notice before announcing final decision following changes in penalty. Changes, made by the state board of pharmacy in hearing officer's penalty for pharmacist's violation of this section, rendered without notice to the appellant or without any further hearings following a hearing officer's initial decision and order, were quasi-judicial in nature and thus neither this section nor due process principles required that the board issue any notice prior to announcing its final decision. Mitchell v. Klapper, 626 P.2d 1163 (Colo. App. 1980).