Food and Drug Law Commons^™

Government Drug Testing: A Question Of Reasonableness, James M. Sokolowski

Vanderbilt Law Review

The 1980s were noted for the escalation of the war on drugs. The dominant public perception was that drug use is a hideous evil that must be stopped, even at a great cost of public resources and personal liberties. Parents, politicians, and law enforcement officials rallied to battle drug use.2 Tremendous expenses and limited victories did not slow the war on drugs.'It cannot be disputed that drug abuse is widespread. More than seventy million Americans have experimented with illegal drugs, and twenty-three million currently use an illegal drug.4 The costs to society include drug-related crimes, accidents, lost productivity, increased health …

Drug Proceeds Forfeiture And The Right To Counsel Of Choice, Danton A. Berube

Vanderbilt Law Review

As part of the current war on drugs, Congress enacted 21 U.S.C.section 853, the drug proceeds forfeiture statute. The statute authorizes criminal forfeiture of assets that are used in the commission of, or constitute the proceeds from, a federal drug felony. When prosecutors began to use the statute to seek forfeiture of defense counsel's attorney's fees, defendants and the law firms that represented them argued that the provision violated the sixth amendment right to counsel.

The courts of appeals were divided on the question of whether the sixth amendment prohibits forfeiture of assets intended to be used to hire an …

Case Digest, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act is Applicable to Aliens on Foreign Vessels Outside the Territory of the United States--Fourth Amendment Held Inapplicable to Searches and Seizures on the High Seas, United States v. Davis, 905 F.2d 245 (9th Cir. 1990)

Executive Order Authorizing Naturalization for Aliens Serving in Designated Geographical Areas During Grenada Campaign Struck Down--President Reagan Held to Have Exceeded His Authority--Severability of Order Impossible as President Did Not Intend that All Aliens Serving in United States Forces at Time of Campaign Become Citizens--Reyes v. United States Dep't. of Immigration & Naturalization, No. 89-55403 (9th Cir. 1990).

Provision of …

Cocaine, Demand, And Addiction: A Study Of The Possible Convergence Of Rational Theory And National Policy, A. Morgan Cloud, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

As the "war against drugs" meanders through the century,' policy-makers continue to search for effective strategies for combating the illegal drug industry. For seventy-five years the dominant federal strategy has been to curtail supplies of prohibited substances.' In its many permutations, this supply-side approach has included attempts to eradicate crops, to intercept drugs at the Nation's borders, and to arrest, prosecute, and punish commercial participants at every level of the production and distribution system.

By any rational measure, the supply-side "war against drugs" has failed. Only ten to fifteen percent of the illicit drugs entering the country are intercepted and …

The Impact Of The Drug Export Amendments Act Of 1986 On Foreign Tort Victims, James C. Grant

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In response to domestic pharmaceutical producers' demands, Congress amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) on November 14, 1986. The advantages of foreign drug producers over United States drug producers prompted Congress to enact the Drug Export Amendments Act of 1986 (DEAA) which was designed to help United States drug producers compete effectively in the world market. The DEAA now puts domestic producers on more of an equal basis with the rest of the market by allowing them to export unapproved drugs.

The first section of this Note will examine the new amendment and outline its requirements. Then, …

Thoughts On A Faded Peacock: The Effect Of Erisa's Preemption Provision On State Third Party Prescription Drug Program Statutes, Richard M. Rindler, Evan Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article analyzes the preemptive effect of ERISA on state third party prescription drug program legislation. It argues that such laws do not "relate to employee benefit plans" and that even if the courts were to view them as relating to employee benefit plans, the laws meet the statutory exception to preemption for state laws that "regulate . . . insurance."

The Article contends that third party prescription drug program statutes represent a type of "borderline preemption problem, and it offers a functional approach to resolve the problem. If a state law affects employee benefit plans without infringing on their …

Truth In Judging: Supreme Court Opinions As Legislative Drafting, Ray Forrester

Vanderbilt Law Review

The first thesis this Article postulates is that the history of food and drug regulation during the past twenty centuries has been the history of the development of analytical chemistry, not the history of the development of law and regulation. Statutory law during this period has remained relatively static, while general understanding of analytical chemistry has leapt ahead with unparalleled achievement. Increased scientific enlightenment, largely achieved through analytical chemistry, has produced every important advance in food and drug regulation. Indeed, the overwhelming success of the field of analytical chemistry has created entire scientific disciplines as well as improvement in government …

Reducing Diet-Induced Cancer Through Federal Regulation: Opportunities And Obstacles, Richard A. Merrill

Vanderbilt Law Review

For more than a decade, federal health regulatory agencies have devoted major attention to controlling human exposure to substances believed capable of causing cancer. These efforts have evoked a broad spectrum of criticism; government has been accused of both indolence in the face of an incipient epidemic' and reckless distortion of science to support restrictions on substances that present only trivial risks. A central object of regulatory concern has been the safety of the food supply. At least since the 1958 Food Additives Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act),'with its famous Delaney Clause, the Food …

Measuring Risks And Benefits Of Food Safety Decisions, Richard Zeckhauser

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article discusses the assessment of risks and benefits as one approach to organizing information.The way information is organized should depend on the way it will be valued and used. For example, the decision making authorities within the regulatory process may choose to take different approaches to food substances consumed by young and old, or rich and poor. In that case, information should be organized into those categories. An exquisite breakdown of consumption patterns by counties would do little for an age-regarding regulatory process.The remainder of this Article is divided into four parts. Part II reviews the general nature of …

The Lulling Effect: The Impact Of Child-Resistant Packaging On Aspirin And Analgesic Ingestions, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In 1972, the Food and Drug Administration imposed a protective bottle cap requirement on aspirin and other selected drugs. This regulation epitomizes the technological approach to social regulation. The strategy for reducing children's poisoning risks was to design caps that would make opening containers of hazardous substances more difficult. This engineering approach will be effective provided that children's exposure to hazardous products does not increase. If, however, parents leave protective caps off bottles because they are difficult to open, or increase children's access to these bottles because they are supposedly "child proof," the regulation may not have a beneficial effect. …

Criminal Liability Of Corporate Officers For Strict Liability Offenses - Another View, Kathleen F. Brickey

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article offers an alternative analysis of the doctrine articulated by the Supreme Court in Dotterweich and Park and its subsequent application by the Ninth Circuit. In the course of so doing, it suggests that Professor Abrams has lost sight of the public welfare offense model that provided the analytical framework within which the cases were decided and that his postulates may thus be faulted as lacking in context. The analysis in this Article demonstrates that the responsible share standard of liability has, from the outset, incorporated the requirement of an act or omission to act and that of causation …

Drugs And Criminal Responsibility, Edward H. Benton, Andrew Bor, William H. Leech, Joyce A. Levy

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Special Project has carried out three broad purposes.First, it has synthesized and organized materials concerning drugs and criminal responsibility into a useful guide for legal practitioners and others interested in the problems of the drug dependent defendant. Second, it has identified serious analytical flaws in many of the defenses available to the criminal defendant. Finally,it has responded to these deficiencies with proposals intended to protect not only the legal rights of the drug dependent defendant but also the rights of society pertaining to criminal justice. While these societal interests include the swift imposition of criminal penalties when warranted, they …

Narcotics Offenders And The Internal Revenue Code: Sheathing The Section 6851 Sword, John M. Fite

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note first will analyze the Internal Revenue Code provisions supporting the current crackdown by the IRS on suspected narcotics dealers. Secondly, it will examine the split in the federal circuit courts of appeal on the issues of the availability of Tax Court review of an assessment made pursuant to a section 6851 termination of a taxable year and the availability of equitable or statutory protections to prevent the seizure and sale of property belonging to the taxpayer. Lastly, a discussion of the propriety of such conduct by the IRS and its constitutionality in light of recent Supreme Court decisions …

Recent Treaties And Statutes, Donald C. Van Pelt, Jr., George H. Carnall Ii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, constituted a major step toward international acceptance of responsibility for the control of licit and illicit drug traffic. The Single Convention achieved a unified codification4 of existing multilateral treaties in the field' and created the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), center of illicit traffic...In an effort to carry out the principle of limiting the use of narcotic drugs to medical and scientific purposes, the Narcotics Convention of 1931 required noncontracting parties as well as parties to the Convention to furnish annual advance estimates of narcotics needed for these purposes. These estimates were examined …

The Delaney Anticancer Clause: A Model Environmental Protection Law, James S. Turner

Vanderbilt Law Review

In October 1969, the artificial sweetener cyclamate was banned from sale in the United States by Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Robert Finch. To justify his action legally Finch chose to rely'on the so-called Delaney Anticancer Clause of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. Consequently, the Delaney Clause, with its requirement that any substance producing cancer in animals be removed from the American food supply, became an immediate center of controversy. The Secretary himself criticized the Clause as an undue restriction on administrative decision making and as an unscientific limitation on scientific discretion.

Legislation--The Fair Packaging And Labeling Act: Its Legislative History, Content, And Future, Wesley E. Forte

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA), which became effective on July 1, 1967, was designed to protect consumers by requiring informative labeling and nondeceptive packaging for consumer commodities. The statute has been described as "an information bill. The first part is information largely about the label .... The second part of the bill is really, in a way, to try to eliminate the confusion in words so we have a common terminology, so we all speak the same language.... It is like establishing an alphabet ... in size designations." The author seeks to provide an insight into the new …

The Legalization Of Marihuana: A Realistic Approach, Part I, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

All present indications point to an increase in marihuana use throughout the United States. Twenty-five years ago, the drug was found almost exclusively among the working class and minority groups, but the present trend has been toward increased use among people in the middle and upper income and social strata of society. As a result of this trend, the "marihuana problem" is gaining wide-spread prominence. More and more individuals, especially youth,are being subjected to the severe penalties associated with possession and use of marihuana. Not only are people becoming more aware of the legal punishments, but existing facts as to …

The Department Of Consumers, W. E. Forte

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1872, Congress began protecting the American consumer by enacting legislation to prevent mail fraud. From this modest beginning, the consumer protection activities of the federal government have proliferated until today there are at least 33 government agencies engaged in 296 consumer protection activities. In 1961, the estimated annual expenditures by the federal government for direct consumer protection activities totaled 272 million dollars and the number of full-time federal employees engaged in such activities was almost 22,000. Expenditures for consumer advancement, a broader concept, were estimated at 681 million dollars in 1961 and the number of full time federal employees …

Federal Control In The Food And Drug Industries, Thomas W. Christopher

Vanderbilt Law Review

If the attention or lack of attention law reviews give to a subject is indicative of the amount of governmental control therein, then one would conclude that there is little federal regulation in the food and drug fields. The fact is, however, that there are more than 1,200 pages of federal statutes and administrative regulations affecting the food and drug industries, and no industry is more tightly controlled. The antitrust, securities, and labor statutes, for example, are, if anything, less stringent.

In the main, the approach of food and drug regulation is from a different point of view than that …