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12 Alb. Gov't L. Rev. 199 (2018-2019)
Getting Back on Schedule: Fixing the Controlled Substances Act

handle is hein.journals/aglr12 and id is 213 raw text is: 







   GETTING BACK ON SCHEDULE: FIXING
   THE CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT


                     Joseph  Hartunian*

  Federal drug policy has been the subject of much debate over the
last decade, as  the Obama Administration pushed for both
executive and legislative branch changes' that scrambled typical
partisan allies in Congress and reinvigorated a debate that had
been  happening  mostly  out of the  spotlight. As the  Trump
Administration has  moved  to reverse and  halt these changes,
Congress  has begun  to show  signs of life through attempts to
address some of the numerous inefficiencies and shortcomings that
have developed in the almost fifty years since the adoption of the
Controlled Substances  Act.2 This Note analyzes the legislative
backbone  of federal drug policy and argues for legislative and
administrative changes  that  would  lead to a  more  efficient,
transparent, and standardized regime.

                      I.  INTRODUCTION

  In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).3
Signed by President Richard Nixon, the bill was designed as part
of an omnibus package addressing the scattershot regulatory and
administrative approach  the federal government  had  taken to


* Associate, Proskauer Rose LLP. Legislative Aide to Senator Charles E. Schumer,
Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate 2013-2015. Villanova
University, B.A., 2012; University of Michigan Law School, J.D., 2018. Thanks to
Conor McNamara, Professor Gabriel Mendlow, William C. Komaroff, and my
friends at the Drug Enforcement Administration for their valuable insights, as
well as the editors of the Albany Government Law Review for their hard work.
1 See Kasey C. Phillips, Drug War Madness: A Call for Consistency Amidst the
Conflict, 13 CHAP. L. REV. 645, 670-71 (2010) (discussing efforts made by the
Obama Administration to change the federal government's drug policy).
  2 See James Cooper, The United States, Mexico, and the War on Drugs in the
Trump Administration, 25 WILLAMETTE J. INT'L L. & DIsp. RESOL. 234, 284-85
(2018).
  3 Controlled Substances Act, Pub. L. No. 91-513, 84 Stat. 1242 (1970).


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