Montana Attorney General Opinion 17-55

Opinion No. 55. Licenses-Drugs. HELD: All persons selling drugs must obtain a license to do so. March 11. 1937. Hon. J. A. Riedel Secretary, Montana State Board of Pharmacy Boulder, Montana Dear Mr. Riedel: You have requested my opmlOn as to whether all drug dealers must ob- tain a license before being permitted to sell drugs. Section 3202.7 R. C. M., 1935 (Section 1, Chapter 104, Laws of 1931) pro- vides: "It shall be unlawful for any per- son, persons, firm, or corporation to sell or vend drugs, medicines, and remedies as provided for under sec- tions 3170 through 3202 in the state of Montana without first having a license issued under the authority of the state of Montana, provided nothing in this act shall be con- strued so as to interfere with any physician in his practice, nor with the wholesale business of any wholesale dealer as such, nor inter- fere with the distributing, keeping or handling of drugs, acids or poisons by merchants or corpora- tions for use in their own business when kept in the original plainly labeled package." Section 3202.8 provides that ap- plication for license must be made to the secretary of the state board of pharmacy, and Section 3202.9 pro- vides that the annual fee shall be $3.00. It will be seen from the section above that it applies to all persons who sell drugs. It is my opinion that such li- cense must be obtained by all persons who sell drugs even though they sell only such drugs as are contained in the manfacturers' original package, since the statute makes' no exception. There is nothing in the decision in State v. Stephens, 102 Mont. 414, 59 Pac. (2) 54, to the contrary. That decision merely opened the door, per- mitting persons other than registered pharmacists to sell drugs in the manu- OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 57 facturers' original package. The door having been opened so that other persons, as well as registered pharma- cists may sell such drugs, they, as well as others, are not permitted to make such sales unless they obtain a license. The decison above quoted was con- cerned principally with the constitu- tionality of Section 3170 R. C. M., 1935, in so far as it prevented persons other than registered pharmacists to sell drugs in manufacturers' original pack- age.