Whitman County Gazette - Serving Whitman County since 1877

Agency rules pushed us into drug prohibition

In his July 7, 2022 column, publisher Roger Harnack bemoans excessive “law-making” by agencies.

I would join with him, pointing to the Harrison Narcotic Tax Act of 1914. Congress wanted to raise revenue by taxing the flow of narcotics from doctor to patient.

Naturally, they assigned this revenue measure to the Treasury Department to administer.

Evidently, the agency saw more growth potential in enforcing a prohibition than in just collecting a tax, because it inserted drug prohibition into the administrative code they had been charged to w...