Act No. 13, 2003
MEDICINES AND RELATED SUBSTANCES
CONTROL ACT, 2003
Penalties
39. (1) A person who is convicted of an offence specified in section 38 is
liable to a fine not exceeding N$40 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10
years or to both the fine and imprisonment.
(2) The court convicting a person of an offence under this Act may declare a
medicine or a scheduled substance, or other thing, to which the offence relates, to be
forfeited to the State.
(3) A medicine or a scheduled substance, or any other thing, forfeited in terms
of subsection (2) must be destroyed or dealt with in the prescribed manner or as the
Permanent Secretary may direct.
Presumptions and evidence
40.
(1)
In criminal proceedings relating to this Act
(a)
any quantity of a medicine or a scheduled substance in or on any premises,
place, vehicle, vessel or aircraft at the time a sample of that medicine or that
scheduled substance is taken under this Act must, unless the contrary is
proved, be deemed to possess the same properties as that sample;
(b)
a certificate stating the result of an examination or analysis carried out in
terms of section 36(4) and purporting to be signed by the analyst who carried
out the examination or the analysis, must be accepted as prima facie proof
of the facts stated in the certificate;
(c)
a statement or entry contained in a book, record or document kept by the
owner of a medicine or a scheduled substance, or by a manager, an agent or
an employee of that owner, or found on or in any premises occupied by, or
a place or vehicle used in the business of, that owner, is admissible in
evidence.
(2) A prosecution may not be instituted as a result of any examination or analysis
carried out in terms of subsection (4) of section 36, unless a copy of the certificate issued
by an analyst in terms of that subsection, has been handed or transmitted by registered
post to the person who is to be accused, at least 14 days prior to the institution of the
prosecution of that person.
(3) The court in which a certificate referred to in subsection (2) is adduced in
evidence may
(a)
cause the analyst, who signed that certificate, to be summoned to give oral
evidence in the proceedings in question; or
(b)
cause written interrogatories to be submitted to the analyst for reply, and
those interrogatories and any reply to them, purporting to be a reply from
that analyst, are admissible in evidence in those proceedings.
Special defences in case of prosecutions
41. It is sufficient defence for a person charged with the sale of a medicine in
contravention of section 25, if the person proves that he or she
(a)
acquired that medicine from a lawful source in Namibia and obtained a
written proof of purchase from that lawful source; and