Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Office of the Revisor of Statutes

151.40 Possession and sale of hypodermic syringes and needles.

Subdivision 1. Generally. Except as otherwise provided in subdivision 2, it is unlawful for any person to possess, control, manufacture, sell, furnish, dispense, or otherwise dispose of hypodermic syringes or needles or any instrument or implement which can be adapted for subcutaneous injections, except by the following persons when acting in the course of their practice or employment: licensed practitioners, registered pharmacies and their employees or agents, licensed pharmacists, licensed doctors of veterinary medicine or their assistants, registered nurses, registered medical technologists, medical interns, licensed drug wholesalers, their employees or agents, licensed hospitals, licensed nursing homes, bona fide hospitals where animals are treated, licensed morticians, syringe and needle manufacturers, their dealers and agents, persons engaged in animal husbandry, clinical laboratories, persons engaged in bona fide research or education or industrial use of hypodermic syringes and needles provided such persons cannot use hypodermic syringes and needles for the administration of drugs to human beings unless such drugs are prescribed, dispensed, and administered by a person lawfully authorized to do so, persons who administer drugs pursuant to an order or direction of a licensed doctor of medicine or of a licensed doctor of osteopathy duly licensed to practice medicine.

Subd. 2. Sales of limited quantities of clean needles and syringes. (a) A registered pharmacy or its agent or a licensed pharmacist may sell, without a prescription, unused hypodermic needles and syringes in quantities of ten or fewer, provided the pharmacy or pharmacist complies with all of the requirements of this subdivision.

(b) At any location where hypodermic needles and syringes are kept for retail sale under this subdivision, the needles and syringes shall be stored in a manner that makes them available only to authorized personnel and not openly available to customers.

(c) No registered pharmacy or licensed pharmacist may advertise to the public the availability for retail sale, without a prescription, of hypodermic needles or syringes in quantities of ten or fewer.

(d) A registered pharmacy or licensed pharmacist that sells hypodermic needles or syringes under this subdivision may give the purchaser the materials developed by the commissioner of health under section 325F.785.

(e) A registered pharmacy or licensed pharmacist that sells hypodermic needles or syringes must certify to the commissioner of health participation in an activity, including but not limited to those developed under section 325F.785, that supports proper disposal of used hypodermic needles or syringes.

HIST: 1969 c 933 s 21; 1976 c 222 s 95; 1986 c 444; 1997 c 203 art 2 s 17

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes