The Boylan Act (or the Boylan Bill or the Towns-Boylan Act) was a piece of April 1914 legislation in New York State, dealing with narcotics and addiction. The Act predated the federal 1915 Harrison Act, and in some ways anticipated it.[1] Charles B. Towns, one of the sponsors of the Act, stated "it takes only five or six days to cure a drug fiend in hospital."[2]
In 1917, the Whitney Act weakened the Boylan Act by allowing physicians to prescribe narcotics to addicts in the course of treating their addiction.[5]
The Act was later[when?] overturned, as it had the unintended consequence of stimulating the black market for narcotics.[1]