The P.E.I. Pharmacy Board is looking for help from the public to find out if some pharmacies on the Island are selling for full price drugs that were provided as samples to doctors.

'I think it's happening. I think it's happening here and I think it's happening elsewhere.'— Neila Auld, P.E.I. Pharmacy Board

The doctors get the samples for free from drug companies. The pharmacy board hasn't been able to prove it, but board registrar Neila Auld has heard enough stories to convince her samples are being sold.

Auld told CBC News on Monday she wants the public to be aware of what to look for.

"They aren't supposed to be sold through pharmacies; they're supposed to be provided through physicians as a sample," said Auld.

"I think it's happening. I think it's happening here and I think it's happening elsewhere."

Auld said while the pharmacy board has heard rumours it's never received an official complaint. She doesn't know how the samples are getting from the doctors' offices to the pharmacies. No one from the P.E.I. College of Physicians returned calls from the CBC on the issue.

Auld is asking patients who pay full price for a drug stamped "sample" to contact the pharmacy board.

"We would put the pharmacist and pharmacy into a disciplinary process where we would send in investigators and contact the patient and get their statement, and then we would go the particular pharmacy and get their statement," she said.

Pharmacies could be warned or even have their licence revoked if found guilty.

The Pharmacy Board is lobbying to have free samples taken out of doctors offices. The board would prefer it if pharmacists could give out the free samples themselves, if a doctor recommends it.

In that case, a dispensing fee would be charged to either the consumer or the drug company.