---
title: O.C.G.A. § 26-3-13. When a drug, device, or cosmetic advertisement deemed false.
collection: code
id: 26-3-13
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 26-3-13 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/26-3-13
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/26-3-13.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/26-3-13/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t24-t26-(v21)-2023-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=5423edd_0#page=475
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: FOOD, DRUGS, AND COSMETICS / STANDARDS, LABELING, AND ADULTERATION OF DRUGS AND COSMETICS
extraction_warnings:
  - dehyphenation_unverified:arterio-sclerosis
  - dehyphenation_unverified:car-buncles
  - dehyphenation_unverified:polio-myelitis
---

# O.C.G.A. § 26-3-13. When a drug, device, or cosmetic advertisement deemed false.

(a) An advertisement of a drug, device, or cosmetic shall be deemed to be completely false if it is false or misleading in any particular.

(b) For the purpose of this chapter the advertisement of a drug or device representing it to have any effect on albuminuria, appendicitis, arteriosclerosis, blood poisoning, bone disease, Bright’s disease, cancer, carbuncles, cholecystitis, diabetes, diphtheria, dropsy, erysipelas, gallstones, heart and vascular diseases, high blood pressure, mastoiditis, measles, meningitis, mumps, nephritis, otitis media, paralysis, pneumonia, poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis, prostate gland disorders, pylelitis, scarlet fever, sexual impotence, sinus infection, smallpox, tuberculosis, tumors, typhoid, uremia, or sexually transmitted disease shall also be deemed to be false, except that no advertisement not in violation of subsection (a) of this Code section shall be deemed to be false under this subsection if it is disseminated only to members of the medical, dental, or veterinary professions, appears only in the scientific periodicals of these professions, or is disseminated only for the purpose of public health education by persons not commercially interested directly or indirectly in the sale of such drugs or devices, provided that whenever the State Board of Pharmacy determines that an advance in medical science has made any type of self-medication safe as to any of the diseases named in this subsection, the board 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 may deem necessary in the interest of public health, provided that this subsection shall not be construed as indicating that self-medication for diseases other than those named herein is safe or efficacious.

## History

Ga. L. 1961, p. 529, § 14; Code 1933, § 79A-1013, enacted by Ga. L. 1967, p. 296, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 26; Ga. L. 2020, p. 55, § 8/SB 372; Ga. L. 2023, p. 730, § 4(b)(13)/HB 475, effective July 1, 2023.

The 2023 amendment, effective July 1, 2023, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “any effect on” for “any effect in” near the beginning of subsection (b).

## Cross References

False advertising generally, § 10-1-420 et seq.