§ 24-713 — Care and treatment of drug users; authority of Surgeon General.

(a) The Surgeon General is authorized to provide for the confinement, care, protection, treatment, and discipline of persons addicted to the use of habit-forming narcotic drugs who are civilly committed to treatment under the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966, addicts who voluntarily submit themselves for treatment, and addicts and other persons with drug abuse and drug dependence problems convicted of offenses against the United States and who are not sentenced to treatment under the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966, including persons convicted by general courts-martial and consular courts. Such care and treatment shall be provided at hospitals of the Public Health Service especially equipped for the accommodation of such patients or elsewhere where authorized under other provisions of law, and shall be designed to rehabilitate such persons, to restore them to health, and, where necessary, to train them to be self-supporting and self-reliant; but nothing in this section or in §§ 257 [repealed] to 261a [repealed] of Title 42, United States Code, shall be construed to limit the authority of the Surgeon General under other provisions of law to provide for the conditional release of patients and for aftercare under supervision. In carrying out this subsection, the Secretary shall establish in each hospital and other appropriate medical facility of the Service a treatment and rehabilitation program for drug addicts and other persons with drug abuse and drug dependence problems who are in the area served by such hospital or other facility; except that the requirement of this sentence shall not apply in the case of any such hospital or other facility with respect to which the Secretary determines that there is not sufficient need for such a program in such hospital or other facility.

(b) Upon the admittance to, and departure from, a hospital of the Service of a person who voluntarily submitted himself for treatment pursuant to the provisions of this section, and who at the time of his admittance to such hospital was a resident of the District of Columbia, the Surgeon General shall furnish to the Mayor of the District of Columbia or his designated agent, the name, address, and such other pertinent information as may be useful in the rehabilitation to society of such person.

(c) The Secretary may enter into agreements with the Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs, the Secretary of Defense, and the head of any other department or agency of the government under which agreements hospitals and other appropriate medical facilities of the Service may be used in treatment and rehabilitation programs provided by such department or agency for drug addicts and other persons with drug abuse and other drug dependence problems who are in areas served by such hospitals or other facilities.

Legislative History

July 1, 1944, 58 Stat. 698, ch. 373, title III, § 341; May 8, 1954, 68 Stat. 80, ch. 195, § 3; July 24, 1956, 70 Stat. 622, ch. 676, title III, § 302(a); Nov. 8, 1966, 80 Stat. 1449, Pub. L. 89-793, title VI, § 601; Oct. 27, 1970, 84 Stat. 1240, Pub. L. 91-513, title I, § 2(a)(1); Mar. 21, 1972, 86 Stat. 77, Pub. L. 92-255, § 402; Oct. 12, 1984, 98 Stat. 2031, Pub. L. 98-473, § 232(a)