This critical examination of existing criminal laws and regulatory schemes governing the manufacture, sale and possession of narcotic substances seeks to analyze and consider the implications of complex recent pharmacological findings regarding endorphins, the endogenous opiate-like chemicals. Focusing primarily upon current federal laws, the writer finds them to be of problematic utility and when viewed in the context of the new psychopharmacological evidence not rational in a legal sense. Selected bodies of literature from the social, medical, and legal disciplines are reviewed in order to seek plausible, if presently theoretical, answers to pertinent questions raised by the recent scientific data. After presenting an overview of the existing laws and the most relevant pharmacological data the writer proceeds to develop the bases for his thesis that existing laws are inconsistent with the implications of the combination of psychopharmacological discoveries with criminal law and judicial practice. Further, the consequences of that inconsistency are discussed, including issues of constitutionality and due process under contemporary statutory structures. In the legislative-oriented component of the dissertation, an attempt is made to propose the enactment of new federal law(s), in order to avoid a legal impasse with regard to criminal controls on narcotic substances that may be precipitated once synthetic endorphin-like chemicals are generally available. A new category of "drug" substance under applicable food and drug law and criminal statutes is proposed, the pharmacological recognition of which may have significant impact upon domain assumptions in criminology and upon criminal legislation and judicial practice. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-03, Section: A, page: 1069. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75786 |
| Contributors | HARRISON, JOSEPH., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 156 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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