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Report No. 29

22. Adulteration of food, etc.-Adulteration of food and drugs has received extensive consideration in the United States of America1, along with the question of drug addiction and sale of narcotics, such as opium, and several Acts have been enacted on the subject2. The latest of the Acts, the Federal Narcotics Control Act, 1956, besides penalising the addicts3, also punishes those who handle narcotics for profit and exploitation. For sale of heroin4 by a person over 18 to a person under 18, death sentence can be awarded under the Act of 1956.

1. See "Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, (1954) 67 HLR 633.

2. See the Harrison Anti-Narcotics Act, 1915 (regarding opium); the Marihauna Tax Act, 1937; and the Federal Narcotics Control Act, 1956.

2. For a summary, see Barnes & Teeters New Horizons in Criminology, (1959), p. 85.

3. Heroin, it is stated, is 5 times stronger than morphine, and may lead to criminal behaviour. See Mabel Elliott Crime in Modern Society (Harper), (1952) p. 173.

23. Racketeering (organised crimes) in the U.S.A.-Another topic which has received special attention in the U.S.A. is "organized crimes", i.e. crimes wherein the traditional criminals join hands with big business for securing ends harmful to the community. Literature on this subject is abundant1. This is popularly known as "racketeering" (organised conspiracy for exploitation)2. Such activities, it is stated, may be indulged in by businessmen, leaders of organised labour, politicians, criminals or even lawyers, but the purpose is exploitation of commerce and the public through circumscribing the right to work and do business. These do not, strictly speaking, fall within "white-collar crime", because the "under-world" takes an active part3. They might, however, encourage or give rise to white-collar crimes (for example, corruption in the police).

1. For an anthology, see Tyler Organized Crime in America, (1962), published by the University of Michigan.

2. Hostetter and Beesley, 20th Century Crime, in (1933) 14 Political Quarterly Review, No. 3, reproduced in Tyler Organised Crime in America, (1962), p. 49.

3. Cf. Mabel Elliott Crime in Modern Society, (Harper), (1952), p. 47.

24. White-collar crimes by professional people.-As regards white-collar crimes by lawyers and other professional people, the following observations of Senator Kefauver1 are relevant:-

"In Chicago, too, we gathered evidence of a disturbing phenomenon that we found repeated in other large cities of the country. I refer to the active participation-amounting almost to subsidization-in gang affairs by a certain element of lawyers, accountants, and tax consultants. As Judge Samuel Leibowitz, of Brooklyn, an outstanding jurist, remarked in his testimony at our final hearings many months later, "There are criminal lawyers and lawyer criminals". Judge Leibowitz said it was one thing for a criminal lawyer to defend his client honestly and squarely and to see that he got his day in court according to our laws and our Constitution, but it was "another thing to be in the hire of some gang to advise the gang how to operate, and to be at the beck and call of the gangster or act as his right-hand man".

Nation-wide disclosures on this particular problem were so disturbing that the Senate Committee felt it would be desirable for local bar associations everywhere to take a new look at how the canon of ethics supposedly governing conduct of members of the bar was being heeded. On the federal level, we felt it would be wise to tighten up the regulations regarding standards for admission of attorneys permitted to practice before federal courts and other United States judicial bodies."

1. Kefauver Crime in America, (1952), p. 57.







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