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.[1] 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."[2]

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[1][3][4]

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.[5]

The Act was later overturned, as it had the unintended consequence of stimulating the black market for narcotics.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 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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