The Harrison Act

December 1914 the United States Congress passed the Harrison Narcotics Act, this was a way to control and phase out the use of medicinal opium, which until this time could freely be purchased at any pharmacy. The use of opium tonics such as paregoric and before, laudanum was common to have in the home medicine cabinet to be used for any ill member of the family. This included using it on babies that had colic and infant illnesses including the teething baby.

The Harrison Narcotics Act made it illegal to have household medicines like paregoric without a prescription from the family physician. The act called for government control of the preparation and distributing of medicinal opium and any of its compounds including opium, morphine, cocaine and any other medicinal that had opiate compounds.

This act was the first of its kind that limited what the public could buy as a household medicinal to treat family members for non life threatening ailments. It still allowed physicians to prescribe these substances for their patients and it was as widely prescribed so that most households still continued their regular use of paregoric and other opiate based tonics and medicines.

The Harrison Narcotics Act was also a tax act that was proposed by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York, which was approved on December 17 ad would begin the regulated production, importation and distributing of opiates as well as placing a tax on them.

.