Rhode Island § 21-31-19 - Rhode Island Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics Act

§ 21-31-19. False advertising.

(a) An advertisement of a food, drug, device, or cosmetic shall be deemed to be false if it is false or misleading in any particular.

(b) For the purpose of this chapter the advertisement of a drug or device representing it to have any effect in albuminuria, appendicitis, arteriosclerosis, blood poison, bone disease, Bright’s disease, cancer, carbuncles, cholecystitis, diabetes, diphtheria, dropsy, erysipelas, gallstones, heart and vascular diseases, high blood pressure, mastoiditis, measles, meningitis, mumps, nephritis, otitis media, paralysis, pneumonia, poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis), prostate gland disorders, pyelitis, scarlet fever, sexual impotence, sinus infection, smallpox, tuberculosis, tumors, typhoid, uremia, or venereal disease shall also be deemed to be false, except that no advertisement not in violation of subsection (a) of this section shall be deemed to be false under this subsection if it is disseminated only to members of the medical, dental, or veterinary professions, or appears only in the scientific periodicals of these professions, or is disseminated only for the purpose of public health education by persons not commercially interested, directly or indirectly, in the sale of the drugs or devices; provided, that whenever the director of health determines that an advance in medical science has made any type of self-medication safe as to any of the diseases named in this subsection, the director of health shall by regulation authorize the advertisement of drugs having curative or therapeutic effect for that disease, subject to any conditions and restrictions that the director of health may deem necessary in the interests of public health; provided, that this subsection shall not be construed as indicating that self-medication for diseases other than those named in this section is safe and efficacious.