Narcotics Manufacturing Act

International Consequences

In 1960 as today, international consensus was that if pharmaceutical companies make more drugs than are medically needed, these drugs eventually find their way to the black market, in either the country where they were produced or elsewhere. As such, limiting the production of legal pharmaceuticals was seen as essential for combating worldwide addiction. However, pharmaceutical lobbies were powerful and the production and sale of narcotics and other drugs were often central to a nation's economy. In an attempt to balance these two concerns, the United States enacted the Narcotics Manufacturing Act of 1960. Passing this act allowed the United States to present itself as “having its domestic house in order” in 1961 when the United Nations (UN) and enacted the Single Convention on Drug Manufacturing. The Single Convention limited the import and export of both narcotics and raw materials that could be used to produce narcotics. It also required member countries to monitor and limit production of these substances to an amount that was medically necessary. The United States argued for lax standards for production, importation, and exportation—the position that the powerful pharmaceutical lobby had hoped the United States would take. Passing the Narcotics Manufacturing Act in the year preceding the UN convention appeared to establish the United States as a country truly concerned with limiting addiction, and thus increased the likelihood that its request for lax international drug regulations would be granted.

Domestic Consequences

For nearly half a century, the United States prohibited the import and export of narcotic substances through the Narcotic Drug Import and Export Act of 1914 while regulating and controlling their domestic distribution through the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. By requiring all narcotics to be sold and shipped in containers with a prepaid IRS tax stamp, the Harrison Act used tax law to regulate domestic traffic in narcotics. This was cumbersome in many ways—not the least of which being that it placed enforcement responsibility in the hands of the IRS. The Narcotics Manufacturing Act of 1960 still used tax stamps and licensing as its method of control.

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