Harrison Narcotics Act Of 1914: A Case Study

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According to Drugs, Society, and Criminal Justice, the implementation of several major drug control laws have been enacted by the federal government over time. First, the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 was established and came into play eight years after the Pure Food and Drug Act was implemented in 1906, as the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 did not deter the sale of drugs but only required the ingredients to be listed on drugs and foods. "The Harrison Act was designed to regulate drug abuse through government taxation and became the basis for narcotics regulation in the United States for more than a half-century", (Levinthal, 2012, p. 56). Although the Harrison Act did not make cocaine and opiates illegal, the physicians that prescribed such …show more content…
The emphasis of marijuana came after false allocations of marijuana were distributed by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, claiming the drug was killing the youth in America and sparking the Congressional Committees were hearing testimonies of traumatic crimes as a result of marijuana (Bethel, 2012). Furthermore, this required anyone that "dealt" in the marijuana trade to register with the Internal Revenue Service and subject to an occupational tax, annually ( Mohebbi, N. H., Greenberg, S. T., & Speir, I. S., 2015). Similarly, this created another form of organized crime on the black market that exists today in our society, but marijuana was prohibited in this format until the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 (Levinthal, …show more content…
The Drug Enforcement Agency was established under this act and consolidated all drug laws. The Controlled Substance Act of 1970 also gave five different schedules of classifications for controlled substances. It also transitioned the drug enforcement administration from the Department of Treasury to the Justice Department and gave divine power to regulate drug control policy to the federal government, regardless of any state policies. Furthermore, a more intensive and investigative approach to combat drug crimes was established with cooperation between federal, state, and local agencies under the supervision of the F.B.I. (Bethel,