(a) An advertisement of a drug, device, or cosmetic shall be deemed to be false if it is false or misleading in any particular.
(b) For the purposes of this article, the advertisement of a drug or device representing it to have any effect in albuminuria, appendicitis, arteriosclerosis, blood poison, bone disease, Bright's disease, cancer, carbuncles, cholecystitis, diabetes, diphtheria, dropsy, erysipelas, gallstone, heart and vascular diseases, high blood pressure, mastoiditis, measles, meningitis, mumps, nephritis, otitis media, paralysis, pneumonia, poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis), prostate gland disorders, pyelitis, scarlet fever, sexual impotence, sinus infection, smallpox, tuberculosis, tumors, typhoid, uremia, or sexually transmitted infection (STI) shall also be deemed to be false, except that no advertisement not in violation of subsection (a) of this section shall be deemed to be false under this subsection if it is disseminated only to members of the medical, dental, or veterinary professions, or appears only in scientific periodicals of those professions, or is disseminated only for the purpose of public health education by persons not commercially interested, directly or indirectly, in the sale of drugs or devices; provided, that whenever the State Commissioner of Health determines that an advance in medical science has made any type of self-medication safe as to any of the diseases named above, the State Board of Health shall by regulation authorize the advertisement of drugs having curative or therapeutic effect for such disease, subject to such conditions and restrictions as the Board and the Commissioner may deem necessary in the interests of public health; provided, that this subsection shall not be construed as indicating that self-medication for disease other than those named herein is safe or efficacious.
Added by Laws 1963, c. 325, art. 14, § 1412, operative July 1, 1963. Amended by Laws 2011, c. 105, § 35, eff. Nov. 1, 2011.