Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act

Prior to the passing of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (CDAPCA), a plethora of legislation relating to control and diversion of drugs was in place. Congress had enacted more than 50 laws to deal with the escalating problem of drug use and drug trafficking. These laws were sometimes confusing and often duplicative. The CDAPCA (Pub. L. No. 91-513) was proposed to collect and consolidate the laws into a single piece of legislation. Since its passage it has remained the foundation of the federal government's enforcement of drug laws.

At the time the CDAPCA was proposed, the U.S. government reported that drug use was a growing problem, approaching epidemic proportions. Between 1960 and 1968, there was a 322% increase in drug arrests. Furthermore, the government was concerned about the increasing number of minors using drugs. Of the drug arrests in 1968, 43,200 of those arrested were under the age of 18, and 6,243 were under the age of 15. Government officials also noted that, in 1965, almost 50% of the 9 billion amphetamines and barbiturates produced legitimately in the United States had been diverted into illegal channels.

The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 sought to combine both the punitive and the rehabilitative approaches to the problem of drug abuse. The act has three titles. Title I covers rehabilitation, Title II deals with control and enforcement, and Title III has to do with imports and exports.

Title I provided authority for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW, which in 1980 became the Department of Health and Human Services) to increase its efforts in the rehabilitation, treatment, and prevention of drug abuse through community mental health centers and through public health service hospitals and facilities. This section of the act allotted $40 million for fiscal year 1971, $50 million for fiscal year 1972, and $80 million for [Page 585]fiscal year 1973, to be used in the construction and staffing of narcotic treatment facilities and for special projects in the field of narcotic addiction.

Title I also authorized annual appropriations of $20 million each year for 1971–1973 for grants by the HEW secretary to public or nonprofit private agencies for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug dependent people. The secretary also authorized grants for drug abuse education directed at the general public, children in school, and high-risk groups. Title I also granted the secretary the authority to protect the privacy of drug research subjects by nondisclosure of identifying data, thereby enabling the researcher to guarantee research subjects complete anonymity, with immunity from prosecution.

Title II is often referred to as the Controlled Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act established a hierarchy of prescription and prohibited drugs and placed every drug in one of five control schedules. The drugs are grouped by their potential for abuse, ability to produce dependence, and accepted medical utility. Schedule I lists drugs that have no traditional recognized medical use, such as heroin, LSD, and marijuana. Schedule II lists the drugs with medical uses that have the greatest potential for abuse and dependence, including morphine and cocaine. The remaining schedules use a sliding scale that balances each drug's abuse potential with its legitimate medical uses. Schedule I and II drugs are subjected to a variety of controls like separate records, manufacturing quotas, distribution restrictions, security requirements, reports to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and criminal penalties for trafficking.

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