Harrison Act 38 Stat. 785 (1914)
HARRISON ACT 38 Stat. 785 (1914)
Congress passed this act at the behest of the Treasury Department to implement the 1912 Hague Convention banning narcotics trafficking. As with other legislation of the period, the act reflected a belief in the necessity of federal regulation to curb social evils. Although most such acts relied on the commerce clause, Congress here used the taxing power to establish a complex network of national drug control.
The act required all manufacturers and dealers in certain narcotics to register with the government and to pay a $1 annual license tax. The act also mandated the use of federal forms to complete transactions and ordered these forms kept for two years, accessible to federal inspection. Sale or shipment of specified drugs in interstate commerce—even their possession by an unregistered person—was illegal. The act exempted physicians and other professionals from filing the federal forms but required them to maintain separate records. A 5–4 Supreme Court sustained the act in united states v. doremus (1919). Justice william r. day asserted Congress's complete discretion to levy taxes, subject merely to the constitutional requirement of geographical uniformity.
David Gordon
(1986)