Short answer. Imprisonment of six years and one day to twelve years, plus a fine. Section 37 also adds revocation of the practitioner's licence and closure of the drug testing centre. It applies to any person authorised, licensed or accredited to conduct drug testing who issues false or fraudulent results.
What the law says
shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment ranging from six (6) years and one (1) day to twelve (12) years
RA 9165, Section 37 — False Drug Test Results. Read the full provision →
What the law says
the revocation of the license to practice his/her profession in case of a practitioner, and the closure of the drug testing center
RA 9165, Section 37 — False Drug Test Results. Read the full provision →
Who the section covers
Section 37 does not reach the general public. It is aimed at insiders of the testing system — any person authorized, licensed or accredited under this Act and its implementing rules to conduct drug examination or test. The offence is the abuse of that authority: issuing a false or fraudulent drug test result. Because a drug test result can decide employment, custody, licensing and criminal matters, the law treats corruption of the testing process itself as a serious wrong, and it holds the accredited tester — the person the system trusts — to that standard.
The imprisonment and fine
The core penalty is a term of imprisonment ranging from six (6) years and one (1) day to twelve (12) years, together with a fine. This is a substantial prison exposure, placing the offence well beyond the range of a minor regulatory infraction. The pairing of a real custodial penalty with a fine signals that a falsified result is treated as a crime against the integrity of the whole testing regime, not merely as professional misconduct to be dealt with administratively.
The institutional penalties bite hardest
Beyond imprisonment and the fine, Section 37 imposes the revocation of the license to practice his/her profession in case of a practitioner, and the closure of the drug testing center. For those in the field these are often the most consequential outcomes. A practitioner loses the very licence that made the work possible, and the centre itself is shut down. The message is that a facility or professional shown to have falsified results forfeits the right to keep operating in the testing business at all, not just to pay a penalty and continue.
When the section is triggered
The offence covers results issued knowingly, willfully or through gross negligence, so it is not confined to deliberate fabrication — a grossly careless result can fall within it as well. What it does not reach is an honest, ordinary mistake that does not rise to that level. For a centre or practitioner facing such an allegation, the records of how the test was conducted, reviewed and reported are central, because the dispute usually turns on the state of mind or degree of negligence behind the result rather than on the raw fact that it was wrong.