-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.druglibrary.org/special/king/king4.htm NARCOTIC DRUG LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT POLICIES By RUFUS KING *A.B. 1938, Princeton University; LL.B. 1943, Yale University. Member of the New York, Maryland, and District of Columbia bars. Chairman, Committee on Narcotics and Alcohol, Section of Criminal Law, American Bar Association. Counsel, Senate Crime Commission, 1951; Senate Committee on Crime and Law Enforcement in the District of Columbia, 1953. Contributor to legal periodicals. Reprinted from the symposium on NARCOTICS Published as the Winter, 1957, issue of LAW AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS Duke University School of Law Durham, N. C. References 1. An early epithet, reflecting the fact that Civil War veterans had become addicted in large numbers as a result of battleground medication, was "the army disease." See DAVID W. MAURER AND VICTOR H. VOGEL, NARCOTICS AND NARCOTIC ADDICTION 6, (1954). Cf. INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON NARCOTICS, REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT 4 (1956). 2. See Kolb, Lets Stop this Narcotics Hysteria, Saturday Evening Post, July 28, 1956, P. 19; CHARLES E. TERRY AND MILDRED PELLENs, THE OPIUM PROBLEM, 7, 23, et passim (1928); MAURER AND VOGEL, OP. cit. supra note I, at 9-ig; Stevens, Make Dope Legal, Harper's Magazine, Nov. 1952, PP. 40, 41 3. In the 1870's and 80's, medical men were beginning to warn that opium addiction was claiming people "who crave the effect of a stimulant, but will not risk their reputation for temperance by taking alcoholic beverages," and who "have not come from the ranks of reckless men and fallen women, but the majority of . . . (whom] are to be found among the educated and most honored and useful members of society." TERRY & PELLENS, Op. Cit. Supra note 2, at 8, 17. 4. Other comparable regulation-by-taxation measures now on the federal books are: Act of July 13, i866, 14 STAT. I36, 26 U. S. C. 1900 (1952) (obligations of nonnational banks); Act of Aug. 27, 1894, 28 STAT. 562, 26 U. S. C. 1807 0952) (playing cards); Act of Aug. 11, 1916, 39 STAT. 476, 26 U. S. C. 5 1920 (1952) (cotton futures); Act of July 10, 1930, 46 STAT. 1022, 26 U. S. C. S 2300 (1952) (oleomargarine); Act of May 10, 1934, 48 STAT. 763, 26 U. S. C. 5 2470 (1952) (vegetable oils); Act of June 26, 1934, 48 STAT. 1240, 26 U. S. C. 2700 (1952) (firearms); Act of Jan. 2, 195T, 64 STAT. I134, 15 U- S- C- ss.ss. 1171, 1172 (1952) (slot machines). 5. E.g., Act of July i, 1902, 32 STAT. 727, 18 U. S. C. ss. 1991 (1952) (train robbery); Act of June 25, 1910, 36 STAT. 825, 18 U. S. C. ss. 43 (1952) (white slavery); Act of June 22, 1932, 47 STAT. 326, 18 U. S. C. ss. 1201 (1952) (kidnapping). Nearly all these statutes spring from the federal cornmercess.power and appear in the Federal Criminal Code; and responsibility for their enforcement falls on the Department of justice. See King, The Control of Organized Crime, 4 STAN. L. REv. 52, 53 n. 7 (1951). 6. Appropriations for narcotic drug law enforcement at the federal level have averaged $1,623,892 annually for the period 1930-55. This reflects a decline from $1,574,154 in 1930 to $1,249,470 in 1936, and then a steady rise to $1,327,000 in 1944, $1,647,000 in 1950, $2,790,000 in 1953, and $2,990,000 in 1955. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Improvement in the Federal Criminal Code of the Senate Committee on the judiciary, 84th Cong., 1st Sess. Pt. 1, at 12 (1955). 7. The most popular current figure is 6o,ooo addicts, or one person in every 3000. See INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON NARCOTICS, Op. cit. supra note i, at 8; Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Illicit Narcotics Traffic, S. REP. No. 1440, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. 3 (1956). 8. The illicit traffic is supplied almost entirely by smuggling operations, and preventive efforts at critical points-i.e., ports of entry-are left to the Bureau of Customs. See Hearings, supra note 6, Pt. 1, at 87. Commissioner of Narcotics Anslinger has characterized the activities of his enforcement staff (then 188 agents) as "like [using] a piece of blotting paper to rnop up the ocean." Hearings before the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organizd Crime in Interstate Commerce, 82d Cong. 1st Sess. Pt. 14, at 430 (1951). See also note 42 infra. 9. Suppression of the Abuse of Opium and Other Drugs, Convention and Final Protocol Between the United States and other Powers, Jan. 23, 1912 and July 9, 1913, 38 STAT. 1912, T.S. No. 612. Bilateral treaties curbing the exploitation of the opium traffic by American nationals had been negotiated at earlier dates, beginning with a United States-Siam pact in 1833. Treaty of Amity and Commerce, March 20, i833, art. 2, 8 STAT. 454, T. S. No. 321. See Wright, The International Opium Commission, 3 J. INT'L L. 648 (1909). 10. The principal sources of opium are countries of the Eastern Mediterranean, Asia, and Asia Minor -currently Iran, Yugoslavia, India, and Turkey; coca, indigenous to the west coast of South America, is also grown in Indonesia. 11. The Geneva Convention of 1925 (International Opium Conference, Feb. 19, 1925, L.N.T.S. No. 1845) set up the first administrative machinery to gather statistical material and recommend quotas for the export and import of narcotic drugs; the Geneva Convention of 1931 (Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, Convention and Protocol of Signature Between the United States and Other Powers, July 13, 1931, 48 STAT. 1543, T.S. No. 863) sought to make the quota controls mandatory and otherwise to tighten the curbs on domestic processing and transfers; the Protocol of 1946 (Protocol Between the United States of America and Other Governments, Narcotic Drugs, 61 STAT. 2230, T.I.A.S. No. 1670 brought the prior conventions into the framework of the United Nations and established the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs; the Protocol of 1948 (Entry into Force of Amendments Set Forth in the Annex to the Protocol of Dec. 11, 1946, Narcotic Drugs, Mar. 30, 1948, 62 STAT. 1796, T.I.A.S. No. 1859) provided for the extension of existing controls to new drugs and derivatives found by the World Health Organization to be dangerously addicting; and the Protocol of 1953 (Protocol for Limiting and Regulating the Cultivation of the Poppy Plant, the Production of, International and Wholesale Trade in, and Use of Opium, June 23, 1953, U.N. Pub. Sales No. 1953, XI.6) restricted opium production to certain designated countries and further limited the distribution and use of opium products. An additional convention, proposed in 1936, makes narcotic drug offenses extraditable and compels signatory powers to treat certain proscribed acts as crimes-i.e., creates new categories of crime directly by international agreement; this has been ratified by a score of countries, but the United States is not a party. Elsewhere in this symposium, the objectives, mechanics, and effectiveness of international narcotic drug controls are explored more extensively. Renborg, International Control of Narcotics, supra 86-112. 12. See HARRY J. ANSLINGER AND WILLIAM F. TOMPKINS, THE TRAFFIC IN NARCOTICS 39-41 (1953). 13. BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, U. S. TREASURY DEP'T, TRAFFIC IN OPIUM AND OTHER DANGEROUS DRUGS I (1950); id. at I (1951); id. at 2-3 (1952). 14. See Comment, Narcotics Regulation, 62 YALE L. J- 751, 763-65 (1953). 15. The Bureau of Narcotics often uses its annual report to disseminate statements of censure against nations whose repressive efforts appear wanting in zeal. Thus, in 1950, Bolivia and Peru were prodded to eradicate the practice of chewing coca leaf among their citizens; it was noted that the British were still making "efforts" to abolish opium smoking in their Far East territories; Thailand and Indonesia were "called on to explain" their policies in operating government opium shops; and Italy and Turkey were noticed as among the foremost suppliers of drugs. for the American traffic. BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, op. cit. supra note 13, at 2-4 (1951). In 1951, Iran was disclosed to have permitted 333 tons of opium to have "disappeared," a situation characterized by the Permanent Central Opium Board as "most disquieting." Id. at 4 (1952). In 1955, the situation in Thailand was reported to be "less than satisfactory" and in need of "more strenuous efforts"; there were also "disturbing reports" about cocaine manufacture in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru; and it was noted that the situation in Lebanon "remains unsatisfactory and requires far greater efforts to reduce the illicit traffic." Id. at 2-3 (1956). it is significant that the Protocol of 1953, supra note it, still lacks ten adherents to reach the number of twenty-five required to make it effective, and that none of the opium-producing countries have become parties.. 16. See ANSLINGER AND TOMPKINS, Op. cit. supra note 12, C- 4; Senate Committee on the judiciary, supra note 7, at 4. 17. For many years, the mainstay of the illicit traffic has been heroin; crude opium and laudanum have all but disappeared, cocaine is rare, and diversions of morphine and synthetics such as methadone into illicit channels are not encountered on a significant scale. See MAURER AND VOGEL, op. cit. supra note I, c. 2; ANSLINGER AND TOMPKINS, op. cit. supra note 12, C. 2. 18. Act of Dec. 17, 1914, c. 1, 38 STAT. 785, as amended, 26 U. S. C. 19. See H. R. REP. NO. 23, 63d Cong., ist Sess. (19I3); S. REP. NO. 258, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. (1914); H. R. REP. No. i196, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. (1914) 20. The act narrowly escaped the bar of unconstitutionality in its first and only direct test before the Supreme Court. United States v. Doremus, 249 U. S. 86 (1919). 21. Smoking opium was subject to prohibitively high duties during most of the nineteenth century, see TERRY AND PFLLENS, op. cit. supra note 2, at 536-39; its domestic manufacture was taxed after 1890, Act of Oct. 1, 1890, 26 STAT. 620, 26 U. S. C. ss. 4711 (Supp. III, 1956); and its importation was prohibited after 1909. Act of Feb. 9, 1909, 35 STAT. 614, 21 U. S. C. ss. 173 0952). The 1909 act was drastically revised, Act of Jan. 17, 1914, 38 STAT. 275, by the same Congress that passed the Harrison Act. 22. See MAURER AND VOGEL, op. cit. supra note I, at 191-92. 23. Morphine, for example, cost "in the neighborhood of 6o cents for a drachm [6o grains] . . . when sold in original bottles or large fractions" at retail drugstore prices in 1913. TERRY AND PELLENS, Op. cit. supra note 2, at 27. 24. Physicians, along with promoters of narcotic-laden patent medicines, were accused of substantial responsibility for the spread of addiction during this period. In 1898, for example, heroin had been presented as a new wonder-drug free of the addicting properties of morphine and the other opiates, and its indiscriminate use by the medical profession produced many new addicts. See TERRY AND PELLENS, Op. cit. supra note 2, at 68 et seq. 25. In some instances, habitual users were even provided with sustaining dosages by public health authorities to prevent them from running afoul of local prescription laws. See CHARLES E. TERRY, ANNUAL REPORT, BOARD OF HEALTH, JACKSONVILLE, FLA. 0913); Brown, Enforcement of the Tennessee Anti-Narcotic Law, 5 Am. J. PuB. HEALTH 323 (1915). 26. Dr. Hamilton Wright, member of the American Opium Commission and vigorous supporter of the Harrison Act, described its similar forerunner in the Sixty-first Congress (H.R. 25241) as follows: "It is designed to place the entire interstate traffic in the habit-forming drugs under the administration of the Treasury Department. It is the opinion of the American Opium Commission that it would bring this whole traffic and the use of these drugs into the light of day and thereby create a public opinion against the use of them that would be more important, perhaps, than the act itself." Hearings before the House Ways and Means Committee, 61st Cong., 2d S2ss- 49-50 (1910). 27. 38 S-T. 785 (1914), as amended, 26 U. S. C. S 470, (Supp. 111, 1956). 28. Id. ss. 4731 (a). To this list, the Secretary of the Treasury may add new substances found to have opium-like addicting liability. Id. ss. 4731 (9). 29. Id. ss. 4704. 30. Id. ss. 4705. 31. Id. ss. 4721-22. 32. Id. ss. 4732. 33. Act of Aug. 2, 1937, 50 STAT. 554, 26 U. S. C. ss.ss. 474i-62 (Supp. 111, 1956). 34. Id. ss. 4741. These taxes must be paid in advance by the intended transferee at the time of securing the prescribed order form from the Treasury Department. 35. See 26 U. S. C. ss.ss. 7201-12 (SuPP. 111, 1956). 36. 38 STAT. 785 (1914), as amended, 26 U. S. C. ss. 4704(a) (SUPP. III, 1956). Also, possession by any unregistered person, even when stamps are properly affixed, is "prima facie evidence" of liability for the tax, thus furnishing a basis for prosecution for evasion. id. S 4724(c). 37. Id. ss. 4706. The vessel or vehicle used to transport seizable drugs may also be subject to forfeiture, 64 STAT. 427, 49 U. S. C. ss. 78i 0952). 38 38 STAT. 785 (1914), 26 U. S. C. ss. 4724(a) (Supp. 111, 1956). 39. Id. ss. 4724(b). 40. See Comment, supra note 14, at 771- 41. Like the Marihuana Act, supra note 33, the Smoking Opium Act, supra note 21, imposes a tax with rates that -are exclusively prohibitory--i.e., $300 per lb. 42. Prior to World War II, smuggling was by the "cargo" method, and "seizures involving 2000 pounds of opium, and 6000 ounces of heroin were not uncommon." ANSLINGER AND TOMPKINS, Op. cit. supra note 12, at 143. Recently, the flow has continued in kilo and ounce quantities. A kilo of pure heroin (costing perhaps $1500 at shipside abroad) will make upwards of 100,000 "caps" or "decks," worth several dollars each in the illicit retail market in the United States. See Hearings before the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, 82d Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 14, at 422-24 (1951). An ounce of heroin is less bulky and more concealable than a pack of cigarettes. See also Hearings, supra note 6, pt. I, at 36 et seq. , 43. The legislative history of the act is unilluminating as to congressional intent. See notes 19 and 26 supra, and note 93 infra. See also MAURER AND VOGEL, Op. Cit, Supra note 1, at 21. 44. See TERRY AND PELLENS, op. cit. supra note 2, at 85. In 1918, it was estimated, on the basis of a survey by questionnaires, that nearly 240,000 addicts were under the direct care of physicians. SPECIAL COMMIT`TEE OF INVESTIGATION, U.S. TREASURY DEP'T, THE TRAFFIC IN NARCOTIC, DRUGS 3 (1919). 45. The phrase "and other practitioners" has recently been added to remove doubts about the status of licensed persons in fields such as osteopathy. Act of Aug. 31, 1954, c. 1147, 68 STAT. 1001 46. 38 S-T- 785 (1914), as amended, 26 U. S. C. ss. 4721(4) (SuPP. 111, 1956). This provision, thus, wisely ties the act to state laws for a determination of each applicant's qualifications and right to practice. Burke v. Kansas City Osteopathic Ass'n, 111 F. 2d 250 (10th Cir. 1940). See also Perry v. Larson, 104 F. 2d 728 (5th Cir. 1939). 47. 38 STAT. 785 (1914), as amended, 26 U. S. C. s. 4722 (SUPP. III, 1956). 48. Id. 4702(a), 4704, 4705. 49. Id. ss. 4705(c)(1), (2). 50.. Id. 4704(b). 51. Id. ss. 4724(b) (5), (6). 52. Id. 4724(c)- 53. Id. ss. 4704(b)(i). 54. Id. 4704(b)(2). 55. Id. ss. 4705(c)(1). 56. Id. 4705(g). But this provision is unconstitutional. Blunt v. United States, 255 Fed. 332 (7th Cir. 1918), cert. denied, 249 U. S. 608 (1919). 57. 38 STAT. 788 (1914), as amended, 26 U. S. C. ss. 4724(b)(5), (6) (SuPP. III, 1956). These provisions apparently charge the recipient with responsibility for the bona fides of the doctor prescribing or dispensing to him, but no cases testing such a bizarre extension have been found. 58. Id. ss. 4724(c) 59. 50 STAT. 554 (1937), 26 U. S. C. ss. 4742 (b)(i), (2) (SUPP. III, 1956). This latter subsection, incidentally, makes the druggist answerable for any prescription where he may be charged with knowledge of the prescribing doctor's bad faith-thus, effectively cutting off all sales of marijuana, in as much as it has no currently recognized medicinal value. 60. See, e.g., Tucker v. Williamson, 229 Fed. 201 (S.D. Ohio 1915); United States v. Curtis, 229 Fed. 288 (N.D. N.Y. 1916); United States v. Friedman, 222 Fed. 276 (W.D. Tenn. 1915). 61. SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATION, Op. Cit. supra note 44, at 6. Other estimates of the same period ran as high as 5,000,000. See TERRY AND PELLENS, op. cit. supra note 2, at 3. The most impressively responsible study estimated "somewhat less than 215,000" for the beginning of the period 1915-22, and "about 110,000" for the end of that period. Kolb and Du Mez, The Prevalence and Trend of Drug Addiction in the United States and Factors Influencing It, 39 PUB. HEALTH REP. I179 (1924). Even in those days, the Narcotics Division was somewhat aggressive about its own views; on May 4, 1924, just before publication of the Kolb-Du Mez study, a Prohibition Unit press release was issued, stating: "It is estimated that there are upwards of 500,000 drug addicts in the United States. TERRY AND PELLENS, op. cit. supra note 2, at 43 n. 25. 62. See LAURENCE F. SCHMECKEBIER, THE BUREAU OF PROHIBITION 3 et seq. (Service Monograph No. 57, Institute for Government Research, Brookings Institute 1929). 63. The illicit traffic took an exotic cast from the Chinese opium smugglers, opium "dens," dime-novel fantasies of the period, and association with the oriental "tongs," the Mafia, and similarly chimerical organizations. Contemporaries, however, recognized the peddler as an understandable, if lamentable, product of the new enforcement policies: "Thus was an illegal substitute for the legal channels of supply created by the law because the law was so interpreted and administered as to render the registered distributors uncertain of their status." TERRY AND POLLENS, Op. Cit. supra note 2, at 91. 64. United States v. Doremus, 249 U. S. 86 (1919). 65. 249 U. S. 96, 99 (1919). 66. Note how the question is phrased to set "professional treatment in the attempted cure of the habit," on the one hand, against prescribing "to keep him comfortable by maintaining his customary use", on the other. The result was to establish that the latter was not "professional treatment" at all. 67. Id. at 99-100. 68 So the certified question put to the Court also departed widely from the facts of the case; this was not a responsibly administered "comfort" regime-this doctor was a mere peddler. 69. 254 U. S. 189 (1920). 70. Id. at 194. 71. 259 U. S. 280 (1922). it is noteworthy that the medical profession itself had been urging a clarification of the earlier decisions by means of a test case. A special A.M.A. committee met with Department of Justice officials early in 1922 to confer "as to the practicability of obtaining decisions from the United States Supreme Court which will remove existing uncertainties as to the meaning and application of the provisions of the Harrison Law." Committee on Narcotic Drugs, Council on Health and Public Instruction, Report, 76 A. M. A. J. 1669, 1670 (1921). 72. The indictment is extensively paraphrased by the Court. 258 U. S. at 286-87. 73. 18 U. S. C. ss. 3731 (1952). 74. 258 U. S. at 288-89. 75. id. at 290. 76. See Manning v. United States, 287 Fed. 800 (8th Cir. 1923); Hobart N. United States, 299 Fed. 784 (6th Cir. 1924); Simmons v. United States, 300 Fed. 321 (6th Cir. 1924) 77. A 1928 census of federal prisoners (in federal institutions) revealed that in this heyday of Prohibition, there were two prisoners serving sentences for narcotic-drug-law offenses for every one incarcerated for a liquor-law violation. The former constituted one-third of the total prison population (2529 out of 7138). SCHMECKEBIER, op. cit. supra note 62, at 143. 78. See TERRY AND PELLENS, op. cit. supra note 2, c. 8. 79. Dr. Linder claimed she had told him only that she was in great pain from a stomach ailment and her regular physician was unavailable; she said she had disclosed that she was an addict. Transcript of Record, Linder v. United States, 268 U. S. 5 (1925). 80. See Motion to Quash Search Warrant, Transcript of Record, Linder v. United States, ss.68 U. S. 5 (1925). 81. Linder v. United States, 290 Fed. 173 (9th Cir. 1923). 82. Linder v. United States, 268 U. S. 5 (1925). 83. Id. at i8 (emphasis added). 84. Id. at 22 (emphasis added). 85. In other words, a physician treating cases of this nature is not safe from unwarranted indictment and may be called upon at any time in court to prove his innocence to the detriment of his social, professional, and economic standing. . . ." TERRY AND PELLENS, Op. cit. supra note 2, at 771. 86. Linder v. United States, 268 U. S. 5 (1925). 87. U. S. Treas. Dep't, Bureau of Narcotics Reg. 5, art. 167 (1949), 26 C. F. R. S 151.167 (1949), 88. See, e.g., U. S. Treas. Dep't, Pro-Mim. No. 217, Oct. 19, 1921, (quoted in TERRY AND PELLENS, op. cit. supra note 2, at 548): "This Bureau has never sanctioned or approved the so-called reductive ambulatory treatment of addiction, however, for the reason that where the addict controls the dosage he will not be benefited or cured. Medical authorities agree that the treatment of addiction, with a view to effecting -a cure, which makes no provision for confinement while the drug is being withdrawn, is a failure, except in a relatively small number of cases where the addict is possessed of a much greater degree of will power than that of the ordinary addict." 89. See BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, U. S. TREASURY DEP'T, MEMORANDUM REGARDING NARCOTIC CLINICS, THEIR HISTORY AND HAZARDS 4 (1938), BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, U. S. TREASURY DEPT, NARCOTIC CLINICS IN THE UNITED STATES 2-3 (1955); ANSLINGER AND TOMPKINS, Op. Cit. supra note 12, at 275. 90. See AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, ACTIONS OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES AND BOAM) 01, TRUSTEES CONCERNING NARCO-FICS AND NARCOTIC ADDICTION 2 (1956). 91. Committee on the Narcotic Drug Situation, Report, 74 A. M. A. J. 1324, 1328 (1920). 92. AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, op. cit. supra note 80, at 7-8. 93. Some of the doctors added to the confusion. See, e.g., Committee on Narcotic Drug Addiction, American Public Health Association, Report, ix J. Am. PUB. HEALTH ASS'N 1066 (1921) (quoted in TERRY AND PELLENS, op. cit. supra note 2, at 897): "The group of addicts variously spoken of as criminals, degenerates, and feeble-minded is unwilling and unable to cooperate in the necessary treatment, and should be kept under official control. In the opinion of your Committee, the control of this group is essentially a police problem." But cf. Collins, Report of the Committee on the Drug Evil, in PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE NEW YORK STATE ASSOCIATION OF MAGISTRATES (1922) (quoted in TERRY AND PELLENS, Op. Cit. SUpra note 2, at 857): ". . . one cannot conceive of a situation that would enable a Federal prohibition commissioner or an internal revenue collector to substitute their rulings for an act of Congress, to supersede the powers of Congress and legislative enactment which must necessarily receive the approval of the President, and which would even then be open to serious question, if forbidding treatment under certain conditions, as to constitutionality in infringing on the power reserved to states. Yet, it may be said, that the effect of the rulings has gone almost to this extent." 94. See Comment, supra note 14, at 784 (1953); Hearings, supra note 6, pt. 5, at 1870. 95. See TERRY AND PELLENS, op. cit. supra note 2, at 850-76. 96. Dr. L. M. Powers, Health Commissioner of Los Angeles (quoted in TERRY AND, PELLENS, Op. Cit. supra note 2, at 875): "I have not been able to realize the actual purpose of the closing of our clinic for there has been some unseen motive prompting much opposition to clinics which I have not been able to comprehend." See Stevens, supra note 2, at 43; Hearings, supra note 6, Pt. 5, at 1459 D. I. 97. See, e.g., testimony of Commissioner Anslinger, Hearings, supra note 6, pt. I, at 44-47; Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Narcotic Addicts, S. REP. No. 1850, 84th Cong., 2d SESS. 2-II (1956); Hearings before the Senate Special Committee to investigate organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, 82d Cong., ist Sess., pt. 14, at 228 (1951). 98. 45 STAT. 1085 (1929), 42 U. S. C. ss. 257 (1952). 99. At Lexington, the state antiaddiction law is used to compel voluntary patients who have left once against advice to submit to virtual imprisonment if they seek readmission: they must plead guilty in the local Kentucky court, where they usually receive a one-year sentence, suspended on condition they remain in the hospital until released. See Comment, supra note 14, at 776 n. 151. 100. United States v. Ratigan, 7 F. SuPP. 491 (W.D. Wash. 1934). See also ANSLINGER AND TOMPKINS, OP. cit. supra note 12, at 135. 101. Ratigan v. United States, 88 F. 2d gig (gth Cir. 1937), cert. denied, 301 U. S. 705 0937). 102. The Bureau's report of the matter states that even after his conviction, Dr. Ratigan remained unregenerate" by indicating his intention to continue supplying addicts with drugs. ANSLINGER AND TOMPKINS, op. cit. supra note 12, at 135-36. Commissioner Anslinger has recently characterized the relationship between his Bureau and members of the medical profession as follows: "There is complete cooperation and a feeling of confidence between the enforcement officer-he does not act like a policeman, in other words. He is more in the nature of a fatherly adviser. . . . Now and then you will find there is a weak link probably in a State; the addict gets to know a doctor who will issue prescriptions without making too close an examination. . . . But he does not go too far. We always catch up with him very quickly, and certainly he is brought to heel very quickly." Hearings, supra note 6, pt. 1, at 38. 103. See Remarks of Hon. John M. Coffee 83 CONG. REC. 2606 App. (1938). 104 Official interest in Ratigan apparently continues: "His license has been revoked, and he has taken the medical board into court several times. I am sure he will not get his license back." (Emphasis added.) Testimony of Commissioner Anslinger, Hearings, supra note 6, pt. 5, at 1437. 105. "Now, we often find the courts will say, 'Well, now, I have here this poor drug addict. He only peddles to take care of himself.' Well, I hope the honorable Senators are not taken in with that sort of thing, because that addict will peddle a capsule or he will peddle a kilo or a thousand ounces or a ton if he can. Now, 70 percent of those we send to prison are addicts." Testimony of Commissioner Anslinger, id., pt. i, at 40. 106. Between 1947 and 1954, the percentage of the total federal prison population sentenced for narcotics violations rose from 9% to 15.7%; the combined federal, state, and local authorities made a total of 23-365 arrests for narcotics offenses in the latter year. See id., pt. i, at 12, 14. As of June 30, 1955, federal prisoners serving time for narcotics and marijuana offenses numbered 3,241, or 14.9%; the only category of offense accounting for more federal prisoners was motor-vehicle theft (21.5%). See U. S. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, FEDERAL PRISONS, 1955, 62-63 (1956). 107. See Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, Final Report, S. REP. No. 725, 82d Cong., 1st Sess., 31-33 (1951). 108. See Hearings before the Senate Special Corniniftec to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, 82d Cong., 1st Sess. pt. 14 (1951). 109. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, supra note 107, at 27. Cf., Gerrity, The Truth About the Drug Menace, Harper's Magazine, Feb. 1952, PP. 27-31. 110. See Hearings, supra note io8, pt. 14, at 426-32. Cf. McCarthy, A Prosecutor's Viewpoint on Narcotic Addiction, Fed. Probation, Oct. 1943, 1). 23 (reprinted and distributed by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1945). 111. E.g., H. R. 1552, 782, 2340, 2645, 3539, 3623, 4140, 4449, 4512, 4593, 4622, 4642, and S. 1702. Several of these measures invoked the death penalty, and one (H. R. 4512) proposed the following for enactment: "Jail sentences for convicted offenders who are the overlords and chief beneficiaries of said dope and narcotic traffic shall be increased to a maximum of one hundred years." 112. Act of Nov. 2, 1851, 65 STAT.- 767, 21 U. S. C. ss. 174 (1952); cf. 68A STAT. 86o, 26 U. S. C. 7237 (SUPP. III, 1956). 113. AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION COMMISSION ON ORGANIZED CRIME, ORGANIZED CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT 53-55 (1952); Commission on Organized Crime, Report, 76 A. B. A. REP. 387, 41I (1951). 114. See Tables, "Narcotic and Marihuana Penalties in the Various States," Hearings, supra note 6, Pt. I, at 300-01 (App.); Comment, supra note 14, at 770. Cf. Anslinger, The Federal Narcotic Laws, 6 FOOD DRUG Cosm. L. J. 743, 748 (1951). 115. Congress enacted such a measure for the District of Columbia, amid much local publicity, in 1953. Act of June 24, 1953, 67 STAT. 77, D. C. CODE ANN. ss.ss. 24.601 et seq. (SUPP. IV, 1955). The measure had been signed by the President before it was discovered that the intended places of incarceration-the USPHS hospitals at Lexington and Fort Worth-could not be used without congressional authorization. Such authority was subsequently provided, Act of May 8, 1954, 68 STAT. 79, 42 U. S. C. ss.ss. 260a, 261 (SuPP. III, 1956), but the law has proved flagrantly deficient in other particulars, see Senate Committee on the judiciary, Illicit Narcotics Problem in the District of Columbia, S. REP. NO. 2033, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. 3-5 (1956), and has just been revised again. Act of July 24, 1956, 70 STAT. 608. See COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS, SUMMARY OF STATE LAWS RELATING TO THE TREATMENT OF DRUG ADDICTION (1953). 116. E.g., Ky. REV. STAT. ss.ss. 218.210, 218.050 (7953); MICH. Comp. LAWS ss. 335-154 (SuPP. 1952); N. J. STAT. ANN. ss. 30:4-I23-43 (1956). 117. A startling number of those States which have legislated against drug addiction and prescribed mandatory treatment have failed to provide even the minimum facilities required for treating addicts. California is an exception, having 8 State hospitals and 12 approved private hospitals for that purpose. New Jersey, on the other hand, which has a 'model' narcotics code has no facilities. In some States addicts may be sent to State mental hospitals, but these hospitals are not equipped to treat narcotics patients." Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Laws Controlling Illicit Narcotics Traffic, S. Doc. No. 120, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. 45 0956). 118. Proceedings of the House of Delegates, 8o A. B. A. REP. 408 (1955). 119. The committee's hearings, supra note 6, are published as follows: pt. 1, Washington, D. C., June 2, 3, and 8, 1955; Pt. 2, Philadelphia, Pa., June 17 and 18, 1955; Pt. 3, New York, N. Y., June 24 and 25, 1955; Pt. 4, Washington, D. C., July 12-I5 and 19, 1955; Pt. 5, New York, N. Y., Sept. 19-21, 1955; pt. 6, Washington, D. C., Sept. 23, 27, and 28, 1955; Pt. 7, Texas, Oct. 12-2t, and Dec. 14 and 15, 1955; pt. 8, California, Nov. 14-18, 1955; pt. 9, Chicago, Ill., Nov. 2i and 22, 1955; pt. 10, Detroit, Mich., and Cleveland, O., Nov. 23 and 25, 1955. 120. Senate Committee on the judiciary, supra note 7. 121. The frustrations of trying to reconcile official statistics on this subject are well illustrated by a comparison of the Narcotics Bureau's official report for 1947, BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, op. cit. supra note 13, at 9 (1948): "The ratio of drug addicts to the general population is approximately 1 in 3,000. The increase in drug addicts since the cessation of World War II has not been as great as in previous postwar periods," with Senate Committee on the judiciary, supra note 7, at 2: "In spite of the fact that Federal officials have done all within their power under present handicaps and with limited personnel, the illicit drug traffic has trebled in the United States since World War It. Addicts were in the ratio of 1 to 1,000 persons at the end of World War II. At the present time, the incidence is about 1 to every 3,000 persons (Emphasis as in original.) 122. For the period January-June 1956, reported major crimes totaled 804,183 in areas of the United States classified as urban, and 147,776 for the rural areas. 27 FBI, U. S. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS FOR THE UNITED STATES 5 (1956). If the senate committee's figure of 60,000 addicts in the United States is accurate, see note 7, supra, and the quoted percentages are unexaggerated, each addict must be committing, on the average, slightly more than one felony per month. Furthermore, half the urban crimes, following the F.B.I. classification, are considerably more than a fourth of the total. Accordingly, the figures are difficult to rationalize precisely on any basis. 123. Senate Committee on the judiciary, supra note 7, at 2-4. 124. Id. at 3. 125. Senate Committee on the judiciary, supra note 97. 126. The subcommittee devoted a part of one day, see Hearings, supra note 6, pt. 5, at 1310 et seq., to statements from witnesses known to be critical of Narcotics Bureau policies, including Dr. Hubert S. Howe (see Howe, A Physician's Blueprint for the Management and Prevention of Narcotic Addiction, 55 N. Y. S. J. MEDICINE 34I (1955), judge Jonah J. Goldstein, Dr. Andrew A. Eggston (see Berger and Eggston, Should We Legalize Narcotics, Coronet, June 1955, P. 30), Alden Stevens (see Stevens, supra note 2) and Dr. Herbert Berger (see Berger, The Richmond County Medical Society's Plan for the Control of Narcotic Addiction, 56 N. Y. S. J. MEDICINE 888 (1956)). Some of this testimony suggested legalizing distribution of drugs to addicts, and some of it referred to narcotics clinics as a mechanism to effect such distribution. At the subcommittee's first hearing, one of its members had characterized the sponsors of such proposals as "bleeding hearts who are acting through sympathy for the poor addict"; and the chairman admitted that "it might be a little difficult for some of us to keep completely open mind on the subject." Hearings, supra note 6, pt. I, at 44, 46. 127. Senate Committee on the judiciary, supra note 97, at 3-7, 10-12. The Committee explained the intensity of this diatribe by noting that controversy over such proposals "was actually impeding law enforcement and efforts to improve and expand existing programs for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts." id. at 2. 128. Pub. L- 728, 84th Cong., 2d Sess., approved July 18, 1956, 70 STAT. 567 (1956). See 102 CONG. REC. 8118-53, 8380-97 (daily ed. May 25 and 31, 1956). 129. Pub. L 728, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. ss.ss. 103, 105-l06, 108, 70 STAT. 568-69, 570-71, 571, 572 (1956). The maximum had previously been $5000. These are not mandatory fines, but they do vcst sentencing judges with ample power to tax the profits of the trafficker when an offender from the high-profit echelons is convicted, as cumulative sentencing on multiple counts affords great flexibility. 130. id. S 103, 70 STAT. 568 (1956). Corresponding maxima are 5, 10, and 40 years. 131. ibid. Moreover, suspension of sentence, probation, and parole-forms of remission of punishment potentially available to all other federal offenders-are expressly made unavailable to all but first offenders in the possession, prescription, and registration categories. Ibid. 132. Early proponents of this feature neglected this distinction between adult and minor offenders, see, e.g., S. 1702 and H. R. 1782, 82d Cong., 1st Sess. (1951), and would, accordingly, have subjected the latter as well to the inescapable minimum sentences contemplated by the legislation. 133. Pub. L 728, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. S 107, 70 STAT. 571 (1956). 134. Id. ss. 201, 70 STAT. 572 (1956). Substantially the same result has been obtained by refusing all import and manufacturing licenses for heroin, so that there has been no legitimate supply available in the United States since 1925. See MAURER AND VOGEL, Op. cit. supra note x, at 55. 135. Id. S 104, 70 STAT. 570 (1956). 136. Id. ss. 20I, 70 STAT. 573-74 (1956). 137. Ibid. This would have been a sound amendment of the procedure affecting all federal prosecutions, and bills to accomplish the broader purpose have been pending in every Congress since the 81st. See, e.g., S. 2060, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. (1952); S. 136 and H. R. 7404 (passed by the House of Representatives, June 7, 1954), 83d Cong., 2d Sess. (1954); H. R. 316, 84th Cong., Ist Sess. (1955). The Department of justice requested consideration of the broader measures, but to no avail. See, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The Narcotic Control Act of 1956, S. REP. No. 1997, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. 18 (1956). 138. 'Pub. L. 728, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. ss. 201, 70 STAT. 573-74 (1956). Cf. Act of Aug. 20, 1954, 68 STAT. 745, 18 U. S. C. ss. 3486 (Supp. III, 1956), which permits such immunity grants, with rigid safeguards, in certain cases affecting the national security. The enforcement officials also sought authority to tap telephones in narcotics cases, but this was deleted when the bill reached the Senate. 139. Pub. L. 728, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. ss. 201, 70 STAT. 573-74 (1956). The Treasury Department protested-to no avail-that this provision "would impose enforcement responsibilities on the Department which it could not feasibly carry out." Senate Committee on the judiciary, supra note 137, at 24. 140 Pub. L. 728, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. ss. 301, 70 STAT. 575 (1956). 141 id. ss. 201, 70 STAT. 572-73 (1956). 142 Senate Committee on the judiciary, supra note 97, at 21. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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