Medicine consumption involves a primary constitutional interest, the human health. This consumption concerns either the individual, who may be directly harmed by the pharmaceutical product or, on a collective level, as a consequence of the creation of widespread danger connected to production, distribution and trading of the product.
This thesis aims to identify the most suitable kind of legal protection to safeguard the consumer. Dismissing civil and administrative protection, the penal system
proves the most effective, in particular, through recourse to “serious offences” (risk of injury) and to “cases which protect functions”. Both of these are anticipatory tools
of protection.
The method adopted is the analysis of the system of rules and incriminating cases contained in Chapter VI, Paragraph II of the Criminal Code and pursuant to the Legislative Decree No219, 24th April. We must not overlook the assessment pertaining to the compatibility of the aforementioned with the principle of offensiveness.
From the research, we can see how the contraventions contained in the complementary source act, mainly, as an anticipation of the protection prepared by the code
crimes.
This research highlights how the analysed offences are related to crimes committed against the person in the form of instrumental function, aimed towards the protection of the final legal good, represented by the individual’s health