(a) Except as provided by Section 159.5, the board may employ legal counsel and inspectors of pharmacy. The inspectors, whether the inspectors are employed by the board or the department’s Division of Investigation, may inspect during business hours all pharmacies, wholesalers, dispensaries, stores, or places where drugs or devices are compounded, prepared, furnished, dispensed, or stored.

(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), a pharmacy inspector may inspect or examine a physician’s office or clinic that does not have a permit under Section 4180 or 4190 only to the extent necessary to determine compliance with and to enforce either Section 4080 or 4081.

(c) (1) (A) A pharmacy inspector employed by the board or in the department’s Division of Investigation shall have the authority, as a public officer, to arrest, without warrant, any person whenever the officer has reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested has, in the officer’s presence, violated a provision of this chapter or of Division 10 (commencing with Section 11000) of the Health and Safety Code.

(B) If the violation is a felony, or if the arresting officer has reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested has violated any provision that is declared to be a felony, although no felony has in fact been committed, the arresting officer may make an arrest although the violation or suspected violation did not occur in their presence.

(2) In any case in which an arrest authorized by this subdivision is made for an offense declared to be a misdemeanor, and the person arrested does not demand to be taken before a magistrate, the arresting inspector may, instead of taking the person before a magistrate, follow the procedure prescribed by Chapter 5C (commencing with Section 853.5) of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal Code. That chapter shall thereafter apply with reference to any proceeding based upon the issuance of a citation pursuant to this authority.

(d) There shall be no civil liability on the part of, and no cause of action shall arise against, a person, acting pursuant to subdivision (a) within the scope of that person’s authority, for false arrest or false imprisonment arising out of an arrest that is lawful, or that the arresting officer, at the time of the arrest, had reasonable cause to believe was lawful. An inspector shall not be deemed an aggressor or lose their right to self-defense by the use of reasonable force to effect the arrest, to prevent escape, or to overcome resistance.

(e) Any inspector may serve all processes and notices throughout the state.

(f) A pharmacy inspector employed by the board may enter a facility licensed pursuant to subdivision (c) or (d) of § 1250 of the Health and Safety Code to inspect an automated drug delivery system operated pursuant to Section 4119.

(g) A pharmacy inspector employed by the board may enter the location, or proposed location, of an automated drug delivery system to inspect that automated drug delivery system or proposed location pursuant to Article 25 (commencing with Section 4427).

(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 629, Sec. 4. (AB 1533) Effective January 1, 2022.)