Penal Law § 178.00 · Article 178. Criminal Diversion of Prescription Medications and Prescriptions
Criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions; definitions
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 178.00 Criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions; definitions.
The following definitions are applicable to this article:
1. "Prescription medication or device" means any article for which a prescription is required in order to be lawfully sold, delivered or distributed by any person authorized by law to engage in the practice of the profession of pharmacy.
2. "Prescription" means a direction or authorization by means of a written prescription form or an oral prescription which permits a person to lawfully obtain a prescription medication or device from any person authorized to dispense such prescription medication or device.
3. "Criminal diversion act" means an act or acts in which a person knowingly:
(a) transfers or delivers, in exchange for anything of pecuniary value, a prescription medication or device with knowledge or reasonable grounds to know that the recipient has no medical need for it; or
(b) receives, in exchange for anything of pecuniary value, a prescription medication or device with knowledge or reasonable grounds to know that the seller or transferor is not authorized by law to sell or transfer such prescription medication or device; or
(c) transfers or delivers a prescription in exchange for anything of pecuniary value; or
(d) receives a prescription in exchange for anything of pecuniary value.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN178.00
- Text hash
- sha256 62183ae8c8e15680180d63dc610699ad339ec366b99807f5685b0125dfd9bf99
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.