Volume 68

Public Law 83–500

To provide for the revocation or denial of merchant marine documents to persons Involved in certain narcotics violations.

Approved July 15, 1954

Statutory text

AN ACT

To provide for the revocation or denial of merchant marine documents to persons Involved in certain narcotics violations.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

That when used in this Act—

The term “narcotic drug” shall have the meaning ascribed to that term by paragraph (a) of the first section of the Narcotic Drugs

58 Stat. 721.

Import and Export Act, as amended (21 U. S. C., sec. 171 (a)), and also shall include marihuana as defined in section 3238 (b) of the

53 Stat. 387.

26 USC 3238.

Internal Revenue Code.

The term “Secretary” means the head of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating.

The term “seaman’s document” means any document authorized by law or regulation to be issued to a merchant mariner by the Secretary.

Sec. 2.

The Secretary may—

deny a seaman’s document to—

any person who, within ten years prior to the date of the application therefor, has been convicted in a court of record of a violation of the narcotic drug laws of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any State or Territory of the United States, which conviction has become final; or

any person who, unless he furnishes satisfactory evidence that he is cured, has ever been a user of or addicted to the use of a narcotic drug; and

take action, based on a hearing before a Coast Guard examiner, under hearing procedures prescribed by the Administrative Procedure Act, as amended (U. S. C., title 5, secs. 1001–1011),

60 Stat. 237.

to revoke the seaman’s document of—

any person who, subsequent to the effective date of this Act and within ten years prior to the institution of the action, has been convicted in a court of record of a violation of the narcotic drug laws of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any State or Territory of the United States, the revocation to be subject to the conviction’s becoming final; or

any person who, unless he furnishes satisfactory evidence that he is cured, has been, subsequent to the effective date of this Act, a user of or addicted to the use of a narcotic drug.

Approved July 15, 1954.