46 USC § 70503 - Manufacture, distribution, or possession of controlled substances on vessels | Title 46 - Shipping | U.S. Code

USCPrelim is a preliminary release and may be subject to further revision before it is released again as a final version.

Current through Pub. L. 112-283. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

(a) Prohibitions.— An individual may not knowingly or intentionally manufacture or distribute, or possess with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance on board—

(1) a vessel of the United States or a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; or

(2) any vessel if the individual is a citizen of the United States or a resident alien of the United States.

(b) Extension Beyond Territorial Jurisdiction.— Subsection (a) applies even though the act is committed outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

(c) Nonapplication.—

(1) In general.— Subject to paragraph (2), subsection (a) does not apply to—

(A) a common or contract carrier or an employee of the carrier who possesses or distributes a controlled substance in the lawful and usual course of the carrier’s business; or

(B) a public vessel of the United States or an individual on board the vessel who possesses or distributes a controlled substance in the lawful course of the individual’s duties.

(2) Entered in manifest.— Paragraph (1) applies only if the controlled substance is part of the cargo entered in the vessel’s manifest and is intended to be imported lawfully into the country of destination for scientific, medical, or other lawful purposes.

(d) Burden of Proof.— The United States Government is not required to negative a defense provided by subsection (c) in a complaint, information, indictment, or other pleading or in a trial or other proceeding. The burden of going forward with the evidence supporting the defense is on the person claiming its benefit.

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(a) Prohibitions.— An individual may not knowingly or intentionally manufacture or distribute, or possess with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance on board—

(1) a vessel of the United States or a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; or

(2) any vessel if the individual is a citizen of the United States or a resident alien of the United States.

(b) Extension Beyond Territorial Jurisdiction.— Subsection (a) applies even though the act is committed outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

(c) Nonapplication.—

(1) In general.— Subject to paragraph (2), subsection (a) does not apply to—

(A) a common or contract carrier or an employee of the carrier who possesses or distributes a controlled substance in the lawful and usual course of the carrier’s business; or

(B) a public vessel of the United States or an individual on board the vessel who possesses or distributes a controlled substance in the lawful course of the individual’s duties.

(2) Entered in manifest.— Paragraph (1) applies only if the controlled substance is part of the cargo entered in the vessel’s manifest and is intended to be imported lawfully into the country of destination for scientific, medical, or other lawful purposes.

(d) Burden of Proof.— The United States Government is not required to negative a defense provided by subsection (c) in a complaint, information, indictment, or other pleading or in a trial or other proceeding. The burden of going forward with the evidence supporting the defense is on the person claiming its benefit.

Source

(Pub. L. 109–304, § 10(2),Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1687.)

Historical and Revision Notes
Revised Section	Source (U.S. Code)	Source (Statutes at Large)
70503(a)
46 App.:1903(a).
Pub. L. 96–350, § 3(a), (e), (h), Sept. 15, 1980, 94 Stat. 1160; Pub. L. 99–570, title III, § 3202, Oct. 27, 1986, 100 Stat. 3207–95, 3207–96, 3207–97; Pub. L. 99–640, § 17, Nov. 10, 1986, 100 Stat. 3552, 3554; Pub. L. 100–690, title VII, § 7402(a), Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4483.
70503(b)
46 App.:1903(h).
70503(c)
46 App.:1903(e) (1st sentence).
70503(d)
46 App.:1903(e) (last sentence).

In subsection (a), before paragraph (1), the words “may not” are substituted for “It is unlawful for” for consistency in the revised title and to eliminate unnecessary words.

In subsection (b), the words “applies to” are substituted for “is intended to reach” for clarity and to eliminate unnecessary words.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Wednesday, February 6, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

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The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

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General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

46 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

46 USC § 70503 - Manufacture, distribution, or possession of controlled substances on vessels

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