(a) It is unlawful for a person knowingly or intentionally to:

(1) distribute as a registrant a controlled substance classified in Schedules I or II, except pursuant to an order form as required by § 44-53-350;

Terms Used In South Carolina Code 44-53-390

  • Controlled substance: means a drug, substance, or immediate precursor in Schedules I through V in Sections 44-53-190, 44-53-210, 44-53-230, 44-53-250, and 44-53-270. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Counterfeit substance: means a controlled substance which, or the container or labeling of which, without authorization, bears the trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint, number, or device, or any likeness thereof, of a manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser other than the person who, in fact, manufactured, distributed, or dispensed such substance and which, thereby, falsely purports or is represented to be the product of, or to have been distributed by, such other manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • delivery: means the actual, constructive, or attempted transfer of a controlled drug or paraphernalia whether or not there exists an agency relationship. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Dispense: means to deliver a controlled substance to an ultimate user or research subject by or pursuant to the lawful order of a practitioner, including the prescribing, administering, packaging, labeling, or compounding necessary to prepare the substance for the delivery. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Distribute: means to deliver (other than by administering or dispensing) a controlled substance. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Drug: means a substance:

    (a) recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them;

    (b) intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man and animals;

    (c) other than food intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man and animals; and

    (d) intended for use as a component of any substance specified in subitem (a), (b), or (c) of this paragraph but does not include devices or their components, parts, or accessories. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. Source: OCC
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Imitation controlled substance: means a noncontrolled substance which is represented to be a controlled substance and is packaged in a manner normally used for the distribution or delivery of an illegal controlled substance. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Manufacture: means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding, conversion, or processing of a controlled substance, either directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of natural origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, and includes any packaging or repackaging of the substance or labeling or relabeling of its container, except that this term does not include the preparation or compounding of a controlled substance by an individual for his own use or the preparation, compounding, packaging, or labeling of a controlled substance:

    (a) by a practitioner as an incident to his administering or dispensing of a controlled substance in the course of his professional practice; or

    (b) by a practitioner, or by his authorized agent under his supervision, for the purpose of, or as an incident to, research, teaching, or chemical analysis and not for sale. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Manufacturer: means any person who packages, repackages, or labels any container of any controlled substance, except practitioners who dispense or compound prescription orders for delivery to the ultimate consumer. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Noncontrolled substance: means any substance of chemical or natural origin which is not included in the schedules of controlled substances set forth in this article or included in the federal schedules of controlled substances set forth in Title 21, Section 812 of the United States Code or in Title 21, Part 1308 of the Code of Federal Regulations. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110
  • Practitioner: means :

    (a) a physician, dentist, veterinarian, podiatrist, scientific investigator, or other person licensed, registered, or otherwise permitted to distribute, dispense, conduct research with respect to, or to administer a controlled substance in the course of professional practice or research in this State;

    (b) a pharmacy, hospital, or other institution licensed, registered, or otherwise permitted to distribute, dispense, conduct research with respect to, or to administer a controlled substance in the course of professional practice or research in this State. See South Carolina Code 44-53-110

(2) use in the course of the manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance a registration number which is fictitious, revoked, suspended, or issued to another person;

(3) acquire or obtain possession of a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception, or subterfuge;

(4) furnish false or fraudulent material information in, or omit any material information from, any application, report, or other document required to be kept or filed under this article, or any record required to be kept by this article;

(5) make, distribute, or possess any punch, die, plate, stone, or other thing designed to print, imprint, or reproduce the trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint, or device of another or any likeness of any of the foregoing upon any drug or container or labeling so as to render the drug a counterfeit substance;

(6) distribute or deliver a noncontrolled substance or an imitation controlled substance:

(A) with the expressed or implied representation that the substance is a narcotic or nonnarcotic controlled substance, or with the expressed or implied representation that the substance is of such nature or appearance that the recipient of the distribution or delivery will be able to dispose of the substance as a controlled substance;

(B) when the physical appearance of the finished product is substantially similar to a specific controlled substance, or if in a tablet or capsule dosage form as a finished product it is similar in color, shape, and size to any controlled substances’ dosage form, or its finished dosage form has similar, but not necessarily identical, markings on each dosage unit as any controlled substances’ dosage form, or if its finished dosage form container bears similar, but not necessarily identical, markings or printed material as any controlled substances which is commercially manufactured and commercially packaged by a manufacturer or repackager registered under the provisions of Title 21, Section 823 of the United States Code. In any prosecution for unlawful delivery of a noncontrolled substance, it is no defense that the accused believed the noncontrolled substance to actually be a controlled substance.

(b) A person who violates this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned not more than five years, or fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or both. If such person is a corporation, it is subject to a civil penalty of not more than one hundred thousand dollars.

(c) The provisions of § 44-53-390(a)(6) do not apply to any transaction in the ordinary course of professional practice of a practitioner registered to dispense controlled substances under this article, nor do they apply to a pharmacy acting in the normal course of business, or pursuant to the lawful order of a placebo prescription.