Overview of the Federal Response
House Judiciary Committee Rationale
On August 4, 1998, the House Judiciary Committee reported H.R. 4006, the Lethal Drug Abusse Prevention Act, to the full House of Representatives. The House Committee report, excerpted below, presents the com-mittee’s views on the need for the legislation. Backgrounds Two recent events make this legislation necessary. The State of Oregon, in contravention of medical ethics and already existing Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) provisions, has legalized the use by physicians of lethal doses of controlled substances in suicide. Second, the Attorney General of the United States ruled on June 5 of this year that such…
