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The New York Times March 22, 1935
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ROOSEVELT ASKS NARCOTIC WAR AID
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Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, March 21. -- Enactment of uniform anti-narcotic traffic laws by the States was urged by President Roosevelt in a message read over the radio tonight by Attorney General Cummings.
Speaking over a Columbia network, under the auspices of the World Narcotic Defense
Association , Mr. Cummings added a plea that the States pass such laws, modeled after the
Harrison Federal anti-narcotic statute.
President Roosevelt's message in the form of a letter to Admiral Richard P. Hobson,
president of the association, read as follows:
"When the present administration took office ten countries had ratified the Geneva
Narcotic Limitation Convention. The United States was one of these ten. Between March 4
and April 10, 1933, twenty other countries deposited their ratifications and the treaty
went into operation on July 9, 1933. It was my privilege, as President, to proclaim, on
that day, that this treaty had become effective throughout the jurisdiction of the United
States.
"Since then, nineteen additional ratifications have been deposited at Geneva and the
treaty has now become the basis of international accord on narcotics. Already its
influence has produced a profound effect on the supply and the distribution of illicit
narcotic drugs.
"An imperative duty rests upon us as a people. Full effect can be given to the terms
of the drug conventions only by supporting legislation enacted by the ratifying nations.
In this country, Federal laws have already been passed. Under our dual form of government,
the power to enact an essential part of this legislation is possessed by the States and by
them alone.
"The provisions necessary for the fulfillment of the duties thus vested in our
several States are incorporated in the draft of the Uniform State Narcotic Law, now
pending before the Legislatures of many of our States. This draft was prepared with great
care and has received the endorsement and approval of a large number of responsible
organizations of the country, including the American Bar Association and the American
Medical Association.
"While it was my privilege to proclaim that the treaty of 1931 became operative in
our country on July 9, 1933, it is now the high privilege of the Legislatures of the
several States to give full effect to the beneficent terms of this treaty by enactment of
suitable and uniform narcotic legislation. By so doing the Legislatures will give to their
own people far better protection than they now have against the ravages of the narcotic
drug evil and at the same time they will strengthen the hands of the United States in its
efforts to aid them and to further combat this evil abroad through full cooperation
between our country and other nations.
"On Jan. 1, 1933, only nine nations had registered their ratification of the
limitation treaty. On Jan. 1, 1935 , only nine States had adopted the uniform State
statute. As 1933 witnessed ratification of the treaty by thirty-one additional nations, so
may 1935 witness the adoption of the uniform drug act by at least thirty-one more states,
thereby placing interstate accord abreast of international accord, to the honor of the
legislative bodies of our States and for the promotion of the welfare of our people and
the peoples of other lands."
Earlier in the day Mr. Cummings complimented the Treasury's recent widespread drive
against crime, which he described as "a remarkably fine job."