Penal Law § 178.05 · Article 178. Criminal Diversion of Prescription Medications and Prescriptions
Criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions; limitation
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 178.05 Criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions; limitation.
1. The provisions of this article shall not apply to:
(a) a duly licensed physician or other person authorized to issue a prescription acting in good faith in the lawful course of his or her profession; or
(b) a duly licensed pharmacist acting in good faith in the lawful course of the practice of pharmacy; or
(c) a person acting in good faith seeking treatment for a medical condition or assisting another person to obtain treatment for a medical condition.
2. No provision of this article relating to the sale of a prescription medication or device shall be deemed to authorize any act prohibited by article thirty-three of the public health law or article two hundred twenty of this chapter.
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/PEN178.05
- Text hash
- sha256 629cecc83a952acd2309131c8ff2815f4b115694e949c05da6751182c15a7fdb
- 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.