Opinion ID: 2208979
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The last paragraph of section 155.30 exempts from its operation a licensed pharmacist when performing acts necessary in the ethical and legal performance of his profession.

Text: While we view the sale of a large quantity of amphetamine sulfate pills without a prescription with a very jaundiced eye and certainly do not approve of what defendant is alleged to have done, we must consider the statute in its application to licensed practitioners generally rather than to defendant and the simple facts before us. There is nothing in the record before us to indicate what is or is not necessary and both ethical and legal. Judges and courts should not be so naive as to pretend they do not know what everyone else knows. We are not suggesting that selling prescription drugs without a prescription is ethical. We are saying that as applied to licensed persons there is nothing in the record before us to indicate what is or is not ethical and legal. We do not know whether there is such a thing as a code of ethics for pharmacists. If there is such a code we do not know what it provides. If applied to licensed persons the statute is too vague to be enforced. There is no ascertainable standard of guilt. We do not believe that the legislature intended the enactment of an unnecessary and useless law.