Long title | Opium Poppy Control Act of 1942 |
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Enacted by | the 77th United States Congress |
Legislative history | |
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The Opium Poppy Control Act of 1942, also known as the Poppy Control Act, was an act of the United States Congress signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 December 1942. [1]
The official law states that it is:
"AN ACT to discharge more effectively the obligations of the United States under certain treaties relating to the manufacture and distribution of narcotic drugs, by providing for domestic control of the production and distribution of the opium poppy and its products, and for other purposes banning all commercial poppy cultivation in most states." [2]
Prior to the passage of this act, opium poppies were legally grown
Major United States federal drug control laws |
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1906 Pure Food and Drug Act |
Regulates labeling of products containing certain drugs including cocaine and heroin |
1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act |
Regulates opiates and cocaine |
1937 Marihuana Tax Act |
Required taxation of marijuana |
1919 Volstead Act |
Implemented 18th Amendment establishing alcohol prohibition in the United States |
1933 Blaine Act |
Alcohol prohibition repealed via 21st Amendment Repeal of Prohibition in the United States |
1942 Opium Poppy Control Act |
Regulated the growth of the opium poppy and prohibited private cultivation in most states. |
1961 Convention on Narcotics |
Treaty to control marijuana |
1970 Controlled Substances Act |
Scheduling list for drugs |
and cultivated across many regions of the United States. [3]
In response to questions from the press, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics issued a public statement regarding its interpretation of the law:
"The Opium Poppy Control Act, which was recently enacted, permits the licensing of opium poppy production only for the purpose of supplying the medical and scientific needs of the Nation for narcotic drugs. There is no immediate or presently prospective need for the growth of the opium poppy to supply medical and scientific needs, and, therefore, it is not now anticipated that any licenses will be issued." [3]
The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is the statute establishing federal U.S. drug policy under which the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of certain substances is regulated. It was passed by the 91st United States Congress as Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 and signed into law by President Richard Nixon. The Act also served as the national implementing legislation for the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products. The act was proposed by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York and was approved on December 17, 1914.
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates and opioids, commonly morphine and heroin, as well as derivatives of many of the compounds found within raw opium latex. The primary three are morphine, codeine, and thebaine.
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.
The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law 75–238, 50 Stat. 551, enacted August 2, 1937, was a United States Act that placed a tax on the sale of cannabis. The H.R. 6385 act was drafted by Harry Anslinger and introduced by Rep. Robert L. Doughton of North Carolina, on April 14, 1937. The Seventy-fifth United States Congress held hearings on April 27, 28, 29th, 30th, and May 4, 1937. Upon the congressional hearings confirmation, the H.R. 6385 act was redrafted as H.R. 6906 and introduced with House Report 792. The Act is referred to, using the modern spelling, as the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. It was overturned in 1969 in Leary v. United States, and was repealed by Congress the next year.
Papaver somniferum, commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae. It is the species of plant from which both opium and poppy seeds are derived and is also a valuable ornamental plant grown in gardens. Its native range was east of the Mediterranean Sea, but has since been obscured and vastly expanded by introduction and cultivation from ancient times to the present day, being naturalized across much of Europe and Asia.
The war on drugs is the policy of a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States. The initiative includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs that the participating governments, through United Nations treaties, have made illegal.
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 is a United Nations treaty that controls activities of specific narcotic drugs and lays down a system of regulations for their medical and scientific uses; it also establishes the International Narcotics Control Board.
The expression International Opium Convention refers either to the first International Opium Convention signed at The Hague in 1912, or to the second International Opium Convention signed at Geneva in 1925.
The Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury, with the enumerated powers of pursuing crimes related to the possession, distribution, and trafficking of listed narcotics including cannabis, opium, cocaine, and their derivatives. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the FBN carried out operations and missions around the world. The bureau was in existence from its establishment in 1930 until its dissolution in 1968. FBN is considered a predecessor to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Levi Gamble Nutt was the Chief of the Narcotics Division within the Prohibition Unit of the United States Department of the Treasury from 1919 to 1930, prior to the creation of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN). He was a registered pharmacist, and led the Division to the arrest of tens of thousands of drug addicts and dealers in the Prohibition era.
In the United States, increased restrictions and labeling of cannabis as a poison began in many states from 1906 onward, and outright prohibitions began in the 1920s. By the mid-1930s cannabis was regulated as a drug in every state, including 35 states that adopted the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act. The first national regulation was the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.
The drug policy in the United States is the activity of the federal government relating to the regulation of drugs. Starting in the early 1900s, the United States government began enforcing drug policies. These policies criminalized drugs such as opium, morphine, heroin, and cocaine outside of medical use. The drug policies put into place are enforced by the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Classification of Drugs are defined and enforced using the Controlled Substance Act, which lists different drugs into their respective substances based on its potential of abuse and potential for medical use. Four different categories of drugs are Alcohol, Cannabis, Opioids, and Stimulants.
A drug policy is the policy regarding the control and regulation of psychoactive substances, particularly those that are addictive or cause physical and mental dependence. While drug policies are generally implemented by governments, entities at all levels may have specific policies related to drugs.
Legal cultivation of opium for medicinal purposes is carried out in India, only in selected areas, under free licensing conditions. India is the world's largest manufacturer of legal opium for the pharmaceutical industry according to the CIA World Factbook. India is one among 12 countries in world where legal cultivation for medical use is permissible within the ambit of United Nations, Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961. In India legal cultivation is done primarily in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Despite producing poppy for opium production India depends heavily on imports to meet need of Poppy seed for edible purposes and domestic Codeine demand for medical purposes . Opium is heavily imported from its top producing nations like Afghanistan. There is also an account of Opium black marketing in India.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws developed the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act in 1934 due to the lack of restrictions in the Harrison Act of 1914. The Harrison Act was a revenue-producing act and, while it provided penalties for violations, it did not give authority to the states to exercise police power regarding either seizure of drugs used in illicit trade or punishment of those responsible.
This is a history of drug prohibition in the United States.
The Anti-Heroin Act of 1924 is a United States federal law prohibiting the importation and possession of opium for the chemical synthesis of an addictive narcotic known as diamorphine or heroin. The Act of Congress amended the Smoking Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 which authorized the importation of the poppy plant for medicinal purposes utilizing an opium pipe or vaporization to consume the euphoric opiate.
Narcotics Manufacturing Act of 1960 is a federal declaration affirming the United States commitment to international convention protocols constricting the non-medical and non-scientific manufacturing of narcotic drugs. The Act of Congress recognizes the Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs and 1948 Protocol establishing deterrents for the chemical synthesis and dispensation of illicit drugs. The public law exemplifies a scientific class of narcotic drugs produced from the natural product of the coca leaf and opium poppy.
The Federal Narcotics Control Board (FNCB) was a Prohibition era senior level law enforcement-related organization established by the United States Congress as part of the Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act on 26 May 1922. The Board was composed of the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Commerce.