v.
Crawford, Commissioners of Pharmacy, Etc.
Lead Opinion
I. The abstract before us shows that the defendants, acting as the commissioners of pharmacy of the state, upon the record of the conviction of plaintiff upon an indictment for maintaining a nuisance, by keeping a place for the sale of intoxicating liquors contrary to law, and by selling intoxicating liquors therein in violation of law, did strike his name from the register of pharmacists, and revoke the certificate issued authorizing him to practice as a pharmacist. The plaintiff, in his petition, complains of the want of authority of the defendants, and of certain alleged illegal acts in the proceeding and judgment in question. The defendants made full return of their doings in the case. The proceedings in the cause, and plaintiff’s objections thereto,need not be here more particularly referred to. They will be stated, so far as may be necessary, in the consideration and discussion of. the various grounds of objection urged in this court by' plaintiff’s counsel to the judgment of the circuit court; but, that these proceedings and plaintiff’s objections thereto may be understood, it is necessary to set out here with proper fullness the statute under which the proceedings were had, viz., chapter 75, Acts of the Eighteenth General Assembly.
The statute is entitled “ An act to regulate the practice of pharmacy, and the sale of medicines and poisons.” Sections 1 and 2 forbid any one not a registered pharmacist to conduct any drug-store or apothecary shop, etc., or to compound and dispense prescriptions of physicians, or to retail or dispense poisons for medical use, except under the supervision [*341] of a registered pharmacist. Penalties are provided for the violation of these sections. Section 3 provides for the appointment by the governor of three commissioners of pharmacy, who are authorized “ to make by-laws and necessary regulations for the fulfillment of their duties under this act.” Sections 4 and 5 provide for the registry of the names of all persons to whom the commissioners issue certificates. Persons in the business when the law took effect, it is provided, shall be registered without examination; others upon examination. These sections contain provisions as to the manner of examination, and other matters that need not be here more particularly referred to. Section 6 relates to fees and other matters not involved in the questions brought to our attention by this case. Section 7 declares that registered pharmacists shall be responsible for the quality of the drugs and medicines they may sell and dispense, and provides penalties for the sale of adulterated articles, and for the striking of the names of offenders from the register. Section 8 is in the following language: “Apothecaries registered as herein provided shall have the right to keep and sell, under such restrictions as herein provided, all medicines and poisons authorized by the National American or United States Dispensatory and Pharmacopoeia as of recognized medical utility: provided that nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to shield an apothecary or pharmacist, who violates or in any way abuses this trust for the legitimate and actual necessities of medicine, from the utmost rigor of the law relating to the sale of intoxicating liquors, and in addition thereto his name shall be stricken from the register.” Section 9 declares that it shall be unlawful for any person to retail any of the poisons enumerated, except as therein prescribed. The last sentence of the section is as follows: “Nor shall it be lawful for ány licensed or registered druggist or pharmacist to retail, or sell, or give away, any alcoholic liquors or compounds as a beverage, and any violation of the provisions of this section shall make the owner or [*342] principal of said store or pharmacy liable to a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars, and not more than one hundred dollars, to be collected in the usual manner, and, in addition thereto, for repeated violations of this section, his name shall be stricken from the register.” Section 10 provides for licensing itinerant vendors of drugs, nostrums, etc. Section 11 provides penalties for procuring, or attempting to procure, registration by false representations, and for conducting the business of selling drugs and medicines without registration. Section 12 declares that the act shall not apply to physicians putting up their own prescriptions.
The plaintiff was convicted upon an indictment which is in the following language: “The said I. F. Hildreth, on the first day of July, A. D. 1880, in the county aforesaid, and daily thereafter, up to the finding of this indictment, did unlawfully keep, own, control, continue, establish and manage a building, in Leon, Iowa, for the purpose and intent of keeping and selling therein, in the state of Iowa, intoxicating liquors, in violation'of law, and at the said time and place, and in said building, the said defendant did keep and sell, in the state of Iowa, intoxicating liquors, in violation of law.”
[*345]
"We reach the conclusion that the circuit court rightly dismissed plaintiff’s petition. The judgment appealed from is, therefore, Affirmed.
Dissent
dissenting. Being unable to agree to the [*346] foregoing opinion, it is proper that I should briefly state the grounds of my dissent. Eor the purposes of this opinion, I concede the constitutionality of the statute considered in the foregoing. As I understand the opinion of the majority, it holds that the commissioners of pharmacy were authorized to revoke the license of the plaintiff as a pharmacist under section 8 of chapter 75 of the Acts of the Eighteenth General Assembly. It will be observed that that section provides that, if the pharmacist violates or abuses in any way the law relating to the sales of intoxicating liquors, his name shall be stricken from the register of pharmacists; and section 9 provides that for repeated violations of that section the name of the registered pharmacist maybe stricken from the register.' Section 8, in my opinion, should be construed as meaning that the name of the pharmacist shall be stricken from the register as provided in the chapter; that is, for “repeated violations of the law,” as provided in section 9.
The provisions of the statute in relation to the sale of intoxicating liquors are peculiar, and contain provisions not to be found in any other criminal statute. Of these provisions, however, no just complaint can be made by the courts. But, as the jflaintiff could not, when his name was stricken from the register, continue the legitimate business of selling drugs and medicines, the statute should not be so construed ap to deprive him of such right, unless it quite certainly appears that such is the legislative intent. Now, in my judgment, so far from this being so,- it clearly appears, I think, that the druggist must persistently violate the statute; or, at least, that it must appear that the statute has been violated in more than a single instance, before the name of a registered'pharmacist can be stricken from the register.