Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act
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Before 1900, narcotics were controlled on the state and locals levels with no real uniformity across the country. In 1914, the United States Congress passed the Harrison Act, which regulated opiates by taxing and controlling how they were made, imported and distributed. As a result of the Act, however, opiates became expensive and hard to get; this resulted in an increase in addiction-related crimes.
The Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act was drafted in 1934 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in order to address the problems that the Harrision Act had inadvertently created. Although the Harrison Act provided a framework for violation penalties, it failed to give states the authority to seize drugs that would be considered illegal under the Act. In order to close the loophole, Harry J. Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a precursor to today’s Drug Enforcement Agency, called for development of the Uniform State Narcotic Act. The Uniform Act was approved by the American Bar Association and distributed to state governments for adoption and implementation. Under the Uniform Act, controlling the sale and use of narcotics would become uniform among the various states.
The most controversial part of the Uniform Act was that it allowed states to treat marijuana as a narcotic and control it as they would other opiates. Although initially adopted by only 9 states, President Roosevelt threw his support behind the Uniform Act, which resulted in more wide-spread acceptance. In order to help convince state legislatures how dangerous it would be to leave these drugs unregulated, Anslinger claimed that marijuana caused young people to become temporarily insane, and ran ads that showed kids smoking pot and then committing crimes, committing suicide and dying. As a result all states adopted the Uniform Act.
Before this statute went into effect, there had been only a few attempts to coordinate law enforcement agencies on the levels of city, town, county, state, and nation. In the 19th century, drug laws usually applied only within a certain city or township. Federal laws before the Uniform State Narcotic Act were the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the Smoking Opium Exclusion Act of 1909, the Harrison Act of 1914, and the Heroin Act of 1924. The Harrison law was the first attempt at government control of the illegal drug traffic.
The Uniform State Narcotic Act applied to narcotics, opiates, cocaine and marijuana. Today those in favor of legalizing marijuana often point to government efforts under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to put pressure on states to sign on to the legislation as an example of why you should not trust the government for facts about this drug. The administration produced films and other propaganda showing people smoking marijuana, and then becoming psychotic and committing violent crimes, including murder and suicide.
