Terms Used In U.S. Code > Title 21 > Chapter 13 > Subchapter I - Control and Enforcement

• administer: refers to the direct application of a controlled substance to the body of a patient or research subject by&mdash. See 21 USC 802
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• agent: means an authorized person who acts on behalf of or at the direction of a manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser. See 21 USC 802
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• anabolic steroid: means any drug or hormonal substance, chemically and pharmacologically related to testosterone (other than estrogens, progestins, corticosteroids, and dehydroepiandrosterone), and includes&mdash. See 21 USC 802
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• association: when used in reference to a corporation, shall be deemed to embrace the words "successors and assigns of such company or association" in like manner as if these last-named words, or words of similar import, were expressed. See 1 USC 5
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Caucus: From the Algonquian Indian language, a caucus meant "to meet together." An informal organization of members of the legislature that exists to discuss issues of mutual concern and possibly to perform legislative research and policy planning for its members. There are regional, political or ideological, ethnic, and economic-based caucuses.
• chemical mixture: means a combination of two or more chemical substances, at least one of which is not a list I chemical or a list II chemical, except that such term does not include any combination of a list I chemical or a list II chemical with another chemical that is present solely as an impurity. See 21 USC 802
• Civil forfeiture: The loss of ownership of property used to conduct illegal activity.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• control: means to add a drug or other substance, or immediate precursor, to a schedule under part B of this subchapter, whether by transfer from another schedule or otherwise. See 21 USC 802
• controlled substance: means a drug or other substance, or immediate precursor, included in schedule I, II, III, IV, or V of part B of this subchapter. See 21 USC 802
• controlled substance analogue: means a substance&mdash. See 21 USC 802
• Convention on Psychotropic Substances: means the Convention on Psychotropic Substances signed at Vienna, Austria, on February 21, 1971. See 21 USC 802
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• counterfeit substance: means a controlled substance which, or the container or labeling of which, without authorization, bears the trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint, number, or device, or any likeness thereof, of a manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser other than the person or persons who in fact manufactured, distributed, or dispensed such substance and which thereby falsely purports or is represented to be the product of, or to have been distributed by, such other manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser. See 21 USC 802
• county: includes a parish, or any other equivalent subdivision of a State or Territory of the United States. See 1 USC 2
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• detoxification treatment: means the dispensing, for a period not in excess of one hundred and eighty days, of a narcotic drug in decreasing doses to an individual in order to alleviate adverse physiological or psychological effects incident to withdrawal from the continuous or sustained use of a narcotic drug and as a method of bringing the individual to a narcotic drug-free state within such period. See 21 USC 802
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• dispense: means to deliver a controlled substance to an ultimate user or research subject by, or pursuant to the lawful order of, a practitioner, including the prescribing and administering of a controlled substance and the packaging, labeling or compounding necessary to prepare the substance for such delivery. See 21 USC 802
• dispenser: means a practitioner who so delivers a controlled substance to an ultimate user or research subject. See 21 USC 802
• distribute: means to deliver (other than by administering or dispensing) a controlled substance or a listed chemical. See 21 USC 802
• distributor: means a person who so delivers a controlled substance or a listed chemical. See 21 USC 802
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• drug: has the meaning given that term by section 321(g)(1) of this title. See 21 USC 802
• Drug Enforcement Administration: means the Drug Enforcement Administration in the Department of Justice. See 21 USC 802
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• executive department: means any executive department, agency, or independent establishment of the United States or any corporation wholly owned by the United States. See 42 USC 201
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• felony: means any Federal or State offense classified by applicable Federal or State law as a felony. See 21 USC 802
• felony drug offense: means an offense that is punishable by imprisonment for more than one year under any law of the United States or of a State or foreign country that prohibits or restricts conduct relating to narcotic drugs, marihuana, anabolic steroids, or depressant or stimulant substances. See 21 USC 802
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• homepage: means the opening or main page or screen of the website of an online pharmacy that is viewable on the Internet. See 21 USC 802
• immediate precursor: means a substance&mdash. See 21 USC 802
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• international transaction: means a transaction involving the shipment of a listed chemical across an international border (other than a United States border) in which a broker or trader located in the United States participates. See 21 USC 802
• Internet: means collectively the myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities, including equipment and operating software, which comprise the interconnected worldwide network of networks that employ the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or any predecessor or successor protocol to such protocol, to communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio. See 21 USC 802
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• isomer: means the optical isomer, except as used in schedule I(c) and schedule II(a)(4). See 21 USC 802
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• list I chemical: means a chemical specified by regulation of the Attorney General as a chemical that is used in manufacturing a controlled substance in violation of this subchapter and is important to the manufacture of the controlled substances, and such term includes (until otherwise specified by regulation of the Attorney General, as considered appropriate by the Attorney General or upon petition to the Attorney General by any person) the following:

  (A) Anthranilic acid, its esters, and its salts. See 21 USC 802

• list II chemical: means a chemical (other than a list I chemical) specified by regulation of the Attorney General as a chemical that is used in manufacturing a controlled substance in violation of this subchapter, and such term includes (until otherwise specified by regulation of the Attorney General, as considered appropriate by the Attorney General or upon petition to the Attorney General by any person) the following chemicals:

  (A) Acetic anhydride. See 21 USC 802

• listed chemical: means any list I chemical or any list II chemical. See 21 USC 802
• maintenance treatment: means the dispensing, for a period in excess of twenty-one days, of a narcotic drug in the treatment of an individual for dependence upon heroin or other morphine-like drugs. See 21 USC 802
• manufacture: means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding, or processing of a drug or other substance, either directly or indirectly or by extraction from substances of natural origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, and includes any packaging or repackaging of such substance or labeling or relabeling of its container. See 21 USC 802
• manufacturer: means a person who manufactures a drug or other substance. See 21 USC 802
• mobile retail vendor: means a person or entity that makes sales at retail from a stand that is intended to be temporary, or is capable of being moved from one location to another, whether the stand is located within or on the premises of a fixed facility (such as a kiosk at a shopping center or an airport) or whether the stand is located on unimproved real estate (such as a lot or field leased for retail purposes). See 21 USC 802
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• narcotic: means opium and coca leaves and the several alkaloids derived therefrom, the best known of these alkaloids being morphia, heroin, and codeine, obtained from opium, and cocaine derived from the coca plant. See 42 USC 201
• narcotic drug: means any of the following whether produced directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of vegetable origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis:

  (A) Opium, opiates, derivatives of opium and opiates, including their isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and salts of isomers, esters, and ethers, whenever the existence of such isomers, esters, ethers, and salts is possible within the specific chemical designation. See 21 USC 802

• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• officer: includes any person authorized by law to perform the duties of the office. See 1 USC 1
• opioid: means any drug or other substance having an addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability similar to morphine or being capable of conversion into a drug having such addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability. See 21 USC 802
• opium poppy: means the plant of the species Papaver somniferum L. See 21 USC 802
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• poppy straw: means all parts, except the seeds, of the opium poppy, after mowing. See 21 USC 802
• practice of telemedicine: means , for purposes of this subchapter, the practice of medicine in accordance with applicable Federal and State laws by a practitioner (other than a pharmacist) who is at a location remote from the patient and is communicating with the patient, or health care professional who is treating the patient, using a telecommunications system referred to in section 1395m(m) of title 42, which practice&mdash. See 21 USC 802
• practitioner: means a physician, dentist, veterinarian, scientific investigator, pharmacy, hospital, or other person licensed, registered, or otherwise permitted, by the United States or the jurisdiction in which he practices or does research, to distribute, dispense, conduct research with respect to, administer, or use in teaching or chemical analysis, a controlled substance in the course of professional practice or research. See 21 USC 802
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• production: includes the manufacture, planting, cultivation, growing, or harvesting of a controlled substance. See 21 USC 802
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• regulated person: means a person who manufactures, distributes, imports, or exports a listed chemical, a tableting machine, or an encapsulating machine or who acts as a broker or trader for an international transaction involving a listed chemical, a tableting machine, or an encapsulating machine. See 21 USC 802
• regulated seller: means a retail distributor (including a pharmacy or a mobile retail vendor), except that such term does not include an employee or agent of such distributor. See 21 USC 802
• regulated transaction: means &mdash. See 21 USC 802
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• retail distributor: means a grocery store, general merchandise store, drug store, or other entity or person whose activities as a distributor relating to ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine products are limited almost exclusively to sales for personal use, both in number of sales and volume of sales, either directly to walk-in customers or in face-to-face transactions by direct sales. See 21 USC 802
• scheduled listed chemical product: means , subject to subparagraph (B), a product that&mdash. See 21 USC 802
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. See 20 USC 807
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Health and Human Services. See 42 USC 201
• Sentencing guidelines: A set of rules and principles established by the United States Sentencing Commission that trial judges use to determine the sentence for a convicted defendant. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• serious bodily injury: means bodily injury which involves&mdash. See 21 USC 802
• serious drug felony: means an offense described in section 924(e)(2) of title 18 for which&mdash. See 21 USC 802
• serious violent felony: means &mdash. See 21 USC 802
• Service: means the Public Health Service. See 42 USC 201
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs: means the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs signed at New York, New York, on March 30, 1961. See 21 USC 802
• State: means any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the Virgin Islands. See 20 USC 807
• State: includes , in addition to the several States, only the District of Columbia, Guam, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. See 42 USC 201
• State: means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States. See 21 USC 802
• State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Surgeon General: means the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service. See 42 USC 201
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Tenancy by the entirety: A type of joint tenancy between husband and wife that is recognized in some States. Neither party can sever the joint tenancy relationship; when a spouse dies, the survivor acquires full title to the property.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• ultimate user: means a person who has lawfully obtained, and who possesses, a controlled substance for his own use or for the use of a member of his household or for an animal owned by him or by a member of his household. See 21 USC 802
• United States: when used in a geographic sense, means all places and waters, continental or insular, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See 21 USC 802
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• vehicle: includes every description of carriage or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on land. See 1 USC 4
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• vessel: includes every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water. See 1 USC 3
• whoever: include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals. See 1 USC 1
• writing: includes printing and typewriting and reproductions of visual symbols by photographing, multigraphing, mimeographing, manifolding, or otherwise. See 1 USC 1