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Boylan Act

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(Redirected from Boylan Bill) Piece of April 1914 legislation in New York State regarding narcotics and addiction

The Boylan Act (or the Boylan Bill or the Towns-Boylan Act) was a piece of April 1914 legislation in New York State, dealing with narcotics and addiction. The Act predated the federal 1915 Harrison Act, and in some ways anticipated it. Charles B. Towns, one of the sponsors of the Act, stated "it takes only five or six days to cure a drug fiend in hospital."

Provisions

  • That opium and morphine be dispensed only by pharmacists, with a written prescription from a physician
  • Any prescription for opiates required a physical examination by a doctor to establish necessity
  • Prescriptions exceeding four grains of morphine, 30 grains of opium, two grains of heroin, or six grains of heroin must be verified by the dispensing pharmacist with a phone call to the prescribing physician
  • Only physicians and pharmacists may dispense syringes or hypodermic needles
  • Per Section 249a, addicts who break the law may be institutionalized for addiction treatment, and addicts resisting treatment could be forced to enter an institution for vagrants

Overturning

In 1917, the Whitney Act weakened the Boylan Act by allowing physicians to prescribe narcotics to addicts in the course of treating their addiction.

The Act was later overturned, as it had the unintended consequence of stimulating the black market for narcotics.

References

  1. ^ Howard Padwa; Jacob Cunningham (January 2010). Addiction: A Reference Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 90–. ISBN 978-1-59884-229-6.
  2. Ross Coomber (16 January 1998). The Control of Drugs and Drug Users: Reason or Reaction?. CRC Press. pp. 16–. ISBN 978-90-5702-188-6.
  3. United States. Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (1973). Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective: Second Report. Ardent Media. pp. 259–. ISBN 978-0-8422-7239-1.
  4. Rick Csiernik (7 January 2011). Substance Use and Abuse: Everything Matters. Canadian Scholars’ Press. pp. 307–. ISBN 978-1-55130-375-8.
  5. Morton Keller (1994). Regulating a New Society: Public Policy and Social Change in America, 1900-1933. Harvard University Press. pp. 116–. ISBN 978-0-674-75366-2.
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