CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Regulators in Canada's eastern province of Prince Edward Island are asking for public verification that free drug samples are being sold illegally.

Registrar for the PEI Pharmacy Board, Neila Auld, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., there's no hard evidence yet but she'd welcome tips from the public.

"I think it's happening -- I think it's happening here and I think it's happening elsewhere," she told the broadcaster. "They aren't supposed to be sold through pharmacies -- they're supposed to be provided through physicians as a sample."

She said she doesn't know how the samples would get from doctors' offices to the pharmacies but said there are harsh penalties, including the revocation of a doctor's or pharmacist's license, if they are found to selling the packages clearly stamped "sample."

Auld said the provincial board has been lobbying for free samples to be given out only by pharmacies on a doctor's recommendation as one way of better regulating the movement of prescription drugs, the report said.

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