The Harrison Act: A Case Study

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The war on drugs has been a very long process filled with difficulties. There have been programs created by the United States Government as well as the private sector to help the issues of drug abuse, mistreatment of drugs, and drug addiction. Drug abuse has been considered a public problem in the past, as it was something that affected a lot of the United States across all socio-economic boundaries. The first major federal anti-drug legislation came in 1914, which was called the Harrison act (Whitebread, C, n/d). The Harrison Act allowed those who sold opium, heroin, cocaine, and morphine to register with the federal government and to pay a tax of 1 dollar per year. However during this time the only individuals who were allowed to register with the federal government were members of the medical…show more content…
One state law says that the definition of potential for abuse means that a substance has properties of a central nervous system stimulant or hallucinogen. This can create a hazardous euphoric feeling which can numb the users’ judgment. In a large number of cases, the user diverted from legal channels and distributed through illegal channels (Schmalleger, 2012). Anti-drug laws at the state level show a surprising degree of uniformity. Such uniformity is due to the fact that almost all states have adopted some version of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, which was proposed in 1972 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The Uniform Controlled Substances Act is similar to the federal Drug Abuse and Prevention Control Act in that it also groups controlled substances into five schedules. The schedules are quite similar to those under federal law (Schmalleger, 2012). Schmalleger, F. (2012) Criminal Law Today An Integrative Introduction, Sixth Edition Chapter 12. Offenses against Public
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