Drug Control Laws Research Paper

504 Words3 Pages

The four major drug control laws were created in order to gain and try to maintain drug issues in many areas. Limitations of the 1906 Pure Food & Drug Act were the first enacted law to regulate drugs in America. The law was created in order to protect the consumers from food that was not tested or approved. Even though the law was created to help, there were several things that it didn’t cover. One important thing it lacked was, it didn’t prevent potential harmful drugs in patented medicine from being sold but it did require that the manufacturers identified certain drugs that might be in these patented medicines. For example heroin and morphine could still be in the medicines as long as they were identified.
The Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 was enacted in order to tax all persons who produced, import, sell, or give away cocaine or opiates drugs. These people must register with the treasury department and pay a special tax on all goods sold, produced, etc. The Harrison Act came into effect after the critics accused the United States of trying to pass international agreements to regulate drug trade while having no domestic control of drug production and distribution. This law was created in order to control drug …show more content…

Until now, this drug wasn’t well known amongst most Americans. When marijuana is sold, the seller will have to pay tax for up to $100 per ounce for a transfer tax stamp. If a tax stamp is not purchased during this time, it is considered to be a federal offense because it makes the transaction illegal. The act was not created to criminalize the possession or usage of the drugs, but included penalties that the users or possessors could possibly face. With this law, violation of these procedures could result in a fine of up to $2000 and five years' imprisonment