Case Name: UNITED STATES of America v. Raymond MOORE, Appellant
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Jurisdiction: District of Columbia
Decision Date: 1973-05-14
Citations: 158 U.S. App. D.C. 375
Docket Number: No. 71-1252
Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Raymond MOORE, Appellant.
Judges: Before BAZELON, Chief Judge, and WRIGHT, McGOWAN, TAMM, LEVENTHAL, ROBINSON, MacKINNON, ROBB and WILKEY, Circuit Judges, sitting en banc.
Reporter: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Volume: 158
Pages: 375–496

Head Matter:
486 F.2d 1139
UNITED STATES of America v. Raymond MOORE, Appellant.
No. 71-1252.
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.
Argued Sept. 10, 1971.
Decided May 14, 1973.
Certiorari Denied Oct. 23, 1973.
See 94 S.Ct. 298
Patricia Wald, Washington, D. C. (appointed by this court), for appellant.
Roger M. Adelman, Asst. U. S. Atty. with whom Thomas A. Flannery, U. S. Atty. at the time the brief was filed, and John A. Terry, Philip L. Cohan and Richard L. Cys, Asst. U. S. Attys. were on the brief, for appellee. Henry F. Greene, Robert C. Crimmins, Oscar Altshuler and John D. Aldock, Asst. U. S. Attys., also entered appearances for appellee.
George P. Lamb, Jr., Washington, D. C., filed a brief on behalf of the Washington Area Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse as amicus curiae.
Before BAZELON, Chief Judge, and WRIGHT, McGOWAN, TAMM, LEVENTHAL, ROBINSON, MacKINNON, ROBB and WILKEY, Circuit Judges, sitting en banc.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM:
Circuit Judge Wilkey, with whom Circuit Judges MacKinnon and Robb join, filed an opinion voting to affirm all convictions and the sentences in the District Court. Circuit Judge Leventhal, with whom Circuit Judge McGowan concurs, filed an opinion voting to affirm all convictions and to remand to the District Court for further consideration of NARA disposition on resentencing. Circuit Judge MacKinnon concurred in Part IV of Circuit Judge Leventhal's opinion, and Chief Judge Bazelon in Part V thereof. Circuit Judges MacKinnon and Robb filed separate opinions voting to affirm all convictions and the sentences in the District Court.
Circuit Judge Wright, with whom Chief Judge Bazelon and Circuit Judges Tamm and Robinson join, filed a dissenting opinion voting to remand for a new trial in which the jury would be permitted to decide whether the defendant as a result of his repeated use of narcotics lacked substantial capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. Chief Judge Bazelon filed a dissenting opinion, stating he would extend the possibility of this defense of lack of capacity to crimes other than narcotics possession.
There being a majority of five judges of the court voting to affirm all convictions, but there being no majority in favor of any specific disposition, Circuit Judges MacKinnon, Robb and Wilkey, without intimating any dissatisfaction with the sentences originally imposed by the District Judge, vote to join Circuit Judges McGowan and Leventhal in affirming defendant Moore's conviction on all counts, vacating the sentences imposed, and remanding to the District Court for resentencing.
So ordered.
WILKEY, Circuit Judge,
with whom
Circuit Judges MacKINNON and ROBB join.
This is an appeal from a conviction under two federal statutes for possession of heroin. Appellant contends that his conviction was improper because he is a heroin addict with an overpowering need to use heroin and should not, therefore, be held responsible for being in possession of the drug. After careful consideration, we must reject appellant's contention and affirm the conviction by the trial court.
I. The Undisputed Evidence and the District Court's actions
During January 1970 the Metropolitan Police began an investigation into a heroin trafficking operation allegedly being conducted in a Northwest Washington hotel. Through an informant, investigating officers learned that two men, identified simply as "Crip Green" and "Jumbo," were selling the drugs from two rooms in the hotel; acting under police supervision, the informant made heroin purchases from both of the suspects.
Based upon this information, search warrants for the two hotel rooms were obtained and executed on 29 January 1970. After knocking and announcing their identity and purpose, and receiving no reply, the officers forced their way into the room. The scene that greeted the officers was accurately described in appellant's own brief as follows:
The room was about 10-12 feet in depth. Against the far wall was a bed, the head of the bed being to the left and the foot to the right. Two chairs were positioned at the side of the bed, facing it, and about one foot away. Sherman W. Beverly was seated on the left-hand chair, and Raymond Moore was seated on the right-hand chair. Both were still seated, and simply twisted around in their chairs to look at the door, when Officer Daly entered.
. In front of Mr. Beverly's chair, about one inch from the edge of the bed, was a white-framed mirror on which there was a quantity of white powder (later found to be 1,854.5 milligrams of a mixture containing 4-7% heroin). [Footnote omitted.] To the right of the mirror, in front of Appellant's chair, was a flat square cardboard record album cover, on which there was also a quantity of white powder (later determined to be 1,824 milligrams of a mixture containing 4-7% heroin). Between these two "cutting boards" lay 93 new gelatin capsules and 81 used gelatin capsules (as determined by the fact that there was a small but detectable amount of white powder containing heroin in the capsules). To the left of the mirror lay 67 capsules filled with a white powder (later found to be a total of 3,650 milligrams containing 4-7% heroin). Toward the far edge of the bed there was a woman's stocking stretched over a wire coat hanger (called a cutting screen). Next to the cutting screen was an unopened package containing about 10 hypodermic syringes and needles. Lying on the album, in front of Mr. Moore's chair, was an ace of hearts cut in half (often called a cutting card). Near the pillow were a set of keys that were found to fit the door of room 15. Under the pillow was a 38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol.
It is obvious that these implements were intended for use in mixing undiluted heroin with lactose and/or quinine to reduce it to a street concentration of about 5-10%-, cutting into the quantity normally injected, and capping it in a form in which it can be sold and carried.
After Appellant and Beverly were arrested, they were searched. A plastic vial containing 50 capsules of a white powder (later found to be a total of 2,274.9 milligrams of a mixture containing 4-7 % heroin) was found in Appellant's right front trouser pocket. Nothing was found on Beverly.
Upon this evidence a four-count indictment was returned charging appellant with violations of the Harrison Narcotics Act, 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a) (1964), and the, Jones-Miller Act, 21 U. S.C. § 174 (1964). Advancing his argument that he was a hopelessly dependent addict and could not, therefore, be held responsible for possession of heroin, appellant sought to have the indictment dismissed under the authority of this court's opinion in Watson v. United States.
At the hearing on this motion appellant stated and the Government stipulated that appellant was indeed a heroin addict. Appellant further testified that he was not a heroin pusher, had never engaged in drug trafficking, and had simply come to the hotel room where he was arrested in order to purchase the illicit drug.
Relying on our opinion in Watson, appellant argued that he was a mere non-trafficking addict and that the indictment should be dismissed for any one of three reasons. First, appellant argued that it is unconstitutional to hold a non-trafficking addict guilty of simple possession of heroin. This position rests on an amplification and extrapolation of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Eighth Amendment advanced in the admittedly confused and divergent opinions in Robinson v. California and Powell v. Texas. The second ground, an extension of the common law principle that there cannot be the requisite free will if the illegal act is performed because of overpowering compulsion, asserts that a narcotics addict is excused from any criminal penalties for the illegal acts of purchase, possession, and use of narcotics to satisfy his personal addictive needs. The third is appellant's construction and interpretation of the series of four congressional acts, which not once since 1909, neither in black let ter statute nor in committee report, have specifically exempted the non-trafficking addict from criminal penalties for purchase, possession, and use.
The Government responded by arguing first that there was no constitutional, common law, or statutory rationale for permitting a non-trafficking addict a defense to a charge of possession of heroin. Secondly, it contended that in any event Moore was not a non-trafficking addict but was in fact engaged in pushing the drug and, even if there were a defense available to mere addicts, such a defense should not be permitted here.
Following a hearing, the trial court denied appellant's motion to dismiss. The trial judge, however, reserved his judgment on whether evidence of addiction could be introduced to the jury by the defense.
At trial the principal prosecution witness was the arresting officer who testified to the facts described above. In addition he testified that he had no personal knowledge that appellant was engaged in drug trafficking, that no tests had been conducted to determine if appellant's fingerprints were on the paraphernalia in the room, that no tests were conducted to determine if heroin powder was present on appellant's hands, and that he had not checked the hotel register and had no way of knowing whether appellant was in any way connected with the room in which he was arrested. On cross-examination the officer admitted that some addicts' habits require 50 to 100 capsules per day, and that having that many capsules in his pockets would not necessarily be inconsistent with appellant being a mere non-trafficking addict. Finally, the officer agreed on cross-examination that in his opinion appellant Moore was a heroin addict.
During the Government's presentation, the court heard out of the presence of the jury the testimony of Dr. Kaufman, an expert on drug addiction. Dr. Kaufman testified that appellant was an addict of long standing, that appellant's addiction had the characteristics of a disease, and that as a consequence appellant was helpless to control his compulsion to obtain and use heroin.
At the conclusion of this testimony, the trial court ruled that Dr. Kaufman would not be permitted to testify before the jury, apparently on the ground that addiction can never be a defense to a charge of possession of heroin. After the Government rested its case, the court denied a motion by appellant for a judgment of acquittal. Appellant then renewed his motion to dismiss the indictment on the basis of Watson. This motion to dismiss was rejected this time because the court felt that there was sufficient evidence of trafficking to permit the case to go to the jury. The court also indicated that it would now permit Dr. Kaufman to testify; this permission was, however, withdrawn the following day.
After this ruling the defense decided not to introduce any further evidence. Before resting, however, for purposes of completing the trial record, the defense offered to introduce the testimony of Mr. McKinley Gore of the District of Columbia Narcotics Treatment Administration. This testimony would have been to the effect that some addicts have habits that require more than 50 capsules per day and that such addicts may have more than 50 capsules in their possession at one time. Mr. Gore also would have testified, if permitted, that appellant was currently enrolled in a methadone therapy program, that in Mr. Gore's opinion appellant's chances for rehabilitation were good, and that Moore was beginning to solve the root problem of his addiction and would soon no longer need heroin.
Following this proffer, the court declined to instruct the jury that a non-trafficking addict could not be convicted under the statutes charged. Moore was found guilty on all four counts of the indictment. Acting upon appellant's motion immediately after the verdict was announced, the court committed appel lant to the Federal Correctional Institute at Danbury, Connecticut, for determination of his suitability for treatment under Title II of the Narcotics Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966, 18 U.S.C. § 4251 et seq. (1970). Subsequently, the NARA staff reported that appellant was an addict, both physically and psychologically dependent on heroin, but was not suitable for treatment. Thus on 14 June 1971 the court sentenced appellant to concurrent terms of two to six years for the violations of 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a) and six years for the violations of 21 U.S.C. § 174. Appellant now seeks reversal of this conviction.
We believe it is clear from the evidence that Moore was not a mere non-trafficking addict but was in fact engaged in the drug trade. Yet even if we were to assume that appellant was a simple addict and nothing more, we believe that his conviction must be sustained.
II. Appellant's Common Law Defense
Let us see how far the logical basis of appellant's argument would inexorably take us. Bear in mind that this logical extension of the argument appellant makes here was foreseen by Justice Black and others of the Supreme Court in Robinson and Powell, as discussed infra, which may account for the limits written into those decisions, limits which appellant would have this court take upon itself to expand.
A.
According to appellant this case has one central issue:
Is the proffered evidence of Appellant's long and intensive dependence on (addiction to) injected heroin, resulting in substantial impairment of his behavior controls and a loss of self-control over the use of heroin, relevant to his criminal responsibility for unlawful possession. . . .
In other words, is appellant's addiction a defense to the crimes, involving only-possession, with which he is charged? Arguing that he has lost the power of self-control with regard to his addiction, appellant maintains that by applying "the broad principles of common law criminal responsibility" we must decide that he is entitled to dismissal of the indictment or a jury trial on this issue. The gist of appellant's argument here is that "the common law has long held that the capacity to control behavior is a prerequisite for criminal responsibility."
It is inescapable that the logic of appellant's argument, if valid, would carry over to all other illegal acts of any type whose purpose was to obtain narcotics for his own use, a fact which is admitted by Judge Wright in his opinion Appellant attempts to justify only the acts of possession and purchase of narcotics, both illegal, and both prohibited because if successfully prohibited they would eliminate drug addiction. The justification is on the basis that the addict has lost the power of control over his choice of acts. Appellant argues that the same rationale, justifying a tolerance of these two illegal acts by this court, or a strained construction of the statute that Congress really did not intend to prohibit such acts, or that it is constitutionally impermissible to prohibit such acts, would not carry over to other actions for the same purpose of obtaining narcotics for his own use.
In the case of any addict there are two factors that go to make up the "self-control" (or absence thereof) which governs his activities, and which determines whether or not he will perform certain acts, such as crimes, to obtain drugs. One factor is the physical craving to have the drug. The other is what might be called the addict's character," or his moral standards. In any case where the addict's moral standards are overcome by his physical craving for the drug, he may be said to lose "self-control," and it is at this point, and not until this point, that an addict will commit acts that violate his moral standards. For our purposes here, we may think of such acts as crimes to obtain drugs.
The legally determinative matter under appellant's theory must be the sum or result of the two factors. Putting it in mathematical terms, if the addict's craving is 4 on a scale of 10, and his strength of character is only 3, he will have a resulting loss of self-control and commit some illegal act to acquire drugs, perhaps only an illegal purchase and possession. For a different example, let us assume a medically induced addict, whose craving is 6, but whose strength of character is 8; with him there will be no resulting loss of self-control, and presumably no illegal acts of any kind. A third example, an addict with a craving of 8, and a strength of character of 3, may result in a loss of self-control to a degree that the addict robs a bank at gunpoint to obtain money to buy drugs.
In all these examples the legally important factor is the resulting loss of self-control. Drug addiction of varying degrees may or may not result in loss of self-control, depending on the strength of character opposed to the drug craving. Under appellant's theory, adopted by the dissenters, only if there is a resulting loss of self-control can there be an absence of free will which, under the extension of the common law theory, would provide a valid defense to the addict. If there is a demonstrable absence of free will (loss of self-control), the il legal acts of possession and acquisition cannot be charged to the user of the drugs.
But if it is absence of free will which excuses the mere possessor-acquirer, the more desperate bank robber for drug money has an even more demonstrable lack of free will and derived from precisely the same factors as appellant argues should excuse the mere possessor.
In oral argument appellant maintained that there are different kinds of addicts, that is, some who -are able to confine their law violation to possession and acquisition for their own use and some who will commit crimes other than possession or acquisition to feed their habits ; and that it is only the latter whom we should punish for their addiction. This position of appellant is, unfortunately, logically untenable, if one accepts appellant's own rationale that we must not punish addicts for possession because of the compulsion under which they act to acquire the drugs.
By definition we have assumed crimes of two classes — first, simple possession and acquisition, or second, greater crimes such as robbery — both motivated by the compulsive need to obtain drugs resulting in loss of self-control. If we punish the second, we can do so only because we find free will. If free will can exist for the second, it likewise must exist for the first class. If, like appellant, one takes the position that any addict who commits crimes (i.e. robbery) to feed his habit may be punished,' one is making a judgment that this addict possesses free will, that he is somehow guilty in a way that the addict who does not commit such crimes to feed his habit (other than the crimes of acquisition and possession) is not. In other words, it follows necessarily that the quality that makes this addict commit such crimes to obtain the drugs is not the compulsion of addiction and the loss of "self-control," but is something apart from his addiction — but if we are dealing with a motivating factor other than drugs, this is another case, it is not the example called for by appellant's rationale. What the analysis just made demonstrates, even in the case of the addict-robber, is that his crime is caused by the same compulsion, his loss of self-control, due to his addiction.
Although attempted by appellant here, there can be no successful differentiation between the source of the drive, the compulsion and resulting loss of control which, appellant argues, vitiates legal accountability, hence the same compulsion would necessarily serve as the basis of the defense for each of the posited illegal acts. It is only a matter of degree. In fact, it seems clear that the addict who restrains himself from committing any other crimes except acquisition and possession, assuming he obtains his funds by lawful means, has demonstrated a greater degree of self-control than the addict who in desperation robs a bank to buy at retail. If the addict can restrain himself from committing any other illegal act except purchase and possession, then he is demonstrating a degree of self-control greater than that of the one who robs a pharmacy or a bank, and thus his defense of loss of control and accountability is even less valid than that of the addict who robs the pharmacy or the bank.
B.
From the dissenting opinions it is not clear whether they ignore the logical inconsistency of this position, or whether the dissenters vaguely recognize the inconsistency and arbitrarily draw a line beyond which, to crimes other than acquisition and possession by a proven addict, the defense of lack of free uñll may not be deployed. Certainly Justice Marshall, writing for four members of the Court in Powell, declared that the limitation proposed by Justice Fortas regarding the defense of chronic alcoholism was merely "limitation by fiat." And so it would be here.
The obvious danger is that this defense uAll be extended to all other crimes — bank robberies, street muggings, burglaries — which can be shown to be the product of the same drug-craving compulsion. Not only would the extension of the defense be on the same logical basis as the defense urged here, and as made indubitably certain in Judge Bazelon's separate opinion, but the words of Judge Wright indicate that the door would be open to another possible extension of the newly created defense not hitherto envisaged:
While these comments in Powell were offered simply as dicta, they do indicate the position of the Court. Consequently [we limit] the availability of the addiction defense to only those acts which, like mere purchase, receipt or possession of narcotics for personal use, are inseparable from the disease itself and, at the same time, inflict no direct harm upon other members of society,
We find cold comfort in Judge Wright's words.
If "mere purchase" by the addict is protected, what about "mere sale" to the same addict? Could not the sale of narcotics to a poor drug-crazed addict, driven by the compulsion of his unsatisfied needs, be defended as a humane act "inflict[ing] no direct harm upon other members of society"? Why would the supplying of narcotics by an illicit trafficker to a certified addict be any less humane, or inflict any more harm on other members of society, than the supplying of narcotics to the same addict by a licensed member of the medical profession ?
C.
1. All of this points up the wisdom of Justice Black's observations in Powell, where he reached the conclusion that questions of "voluntariness" or "compulsion" should not be "controlling on the question [of] whether a specific instance of human behavior should be immune from punishment as a constitutional matter"; his arguments also show how the so-called "common-law defense" of compulsion may be unwisely applied here:
When we say that appellant's [act] is caused not by "his own" volition but rather by some other force, we are clearly thinking of a force that is nevertheless "his" except in some special sense. [Footnote omitted.] The accused undoubtedly commits the proscribed act and the only question is whether the act can be attributed to a part of "his" personality that should not be regarded as criminally responsible. Almost all of the traditional purposes of the criminal law can be significantly served by punishing the person who in fact committed the proscribed act, without regard to whether his action was "compelled" by some elusive "irresponsible" aspect of his personality. As I have already indicated, punishment of such a defendant can clearly be justified in terms of deterrence, isolation, and treatment. On the other hand, medical decisions concerning the use of a term such as "disease" or "volition," based as they are on the clinical problems of diagnosis and treatment, bear no necessary correspondence to the legal decision whether the overall objectives of the criminal law can be furthered by imposing punishment.
Just as Justice Black turned away from the proposed constitutional rule, we spurn the proposed "common law" rule, not only because the recently created statutory scheme of dealing with narcotics addicts stands a reasonable chance of reaching the objectives of "deterrence, isolation, and treatment," but also because the particular nature of the problem of the heroin traffic makes certain policies necessary that should not be weakened by the creation of this defense. There is no compelling policy requiring us to intervene here.
2. Furthermore, if such a judgment weighing and balancing conflicting public interests and policies is to be made, it should be made by Congress, which, as we explore more fully infra, has by its activity in this area demonstrated both that it possesses more adequate facilities to deal with the problems of narcotic addiction, and that we in the judiciary are somewhat circumscribed in our activity in this area.
III. Appellant's Defense and the Eighth Amendment
To evaluate the proposed defense in light of the Eighth Amendment we review the case law, in particular, Robinson v. California (1962) and Powell v. Texas (1968). This review demonstrates that the case law simply does not support the position advanced by appellant.
A.
In Robinson the Supreme Court was asked to determine the constitutionality of a state statute which, among other provisions, punished a person who was "addicted to the use of narcotics." The appellant in Robinson had been convicted of addiction, principally on evidence of "marks and . . . discoloration [which] were the result of the injection of hypodermic needles into the tissue into the vein that was not sterile [sic]."
While the Court observed that there was a wide range of activities available to states in dealing with the problem presented by narcotics, the Court decided that this California statute was not within that range:
This statute, therefore, is not one which punishes a person for the use of narcotics, for their purchase, sale or possession, or for antisocial or disorderly behavior resulting from their administration. It is not a law which even purports to provide or require medical treatment. Rather, we deal with a statute which makes the "status" of narcotic addiction a criminal offense, for which the offender may be prosecuted "at any time before he reforms." California has said that a person can be continuously guilty of this offense, whether or not he has ever used or possessed any narcotics within the State, and whether or not he has been guilty of any antisocial behavior there.
The Court concluded that just as it would be impermissible to punish a person because he was afflicted with mental disease, leprosy, or venereal disease, so would it be impermissible to punish for his affliction one suffering from the illness of narcotic addiction, since
[I]n the light of contemporary human knowledge, a law which made a criminal offense of such a disease would doubtless be universally thought to be an infliction of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Thus the Court held that "a state law which imprisons a person thus afflicted [by addiction to narcotics] as a crimi nal, even though he has never touched any narcotic drug within the State or been guilty of any irregular behavior there, inflicts a cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
There are two important possible holdings which were not made in Robinson, but which are urged by appellant here, ostensibly on the basis of Robinson. The points not decided in Robinson as appellant argues here are:
1. The language of the Court quoted immediately above presumably left it open for a state to punish the activities such as possession and use or "irregular behavior" connected with narcotics addiction, although the addiction standing alone may not be punished.
2. It is also important that the majority's opinion did not base the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rationale on the unconstitutionality of punishment for any "compulsion" or loss of "self-control" involved in narcotics addiction. Indeed, if anything it appears that the appellant in Robinson had not lost his self-control with respect to giving in to his craving for the drug. As Justice Clark put it in his dissent, which would have upheld the California statutory scheme, "It is no answer to suggest that we are dealing with an involuntary status and thus penal sanctions will be ineffective and unfair. The section at issue applies only to persons who use narcotics often or even daily but not to the point of losing self-control." Furthermore, the trial judge in Robinson, in his instructions to the jury, did not have his definition turn on any compulsion or loss of self-control:
The word "addicted" means, strongly disposed to some taste or practice or habituated, especially to drugs. In order to inquire as to whether a person is addicted to the use of narcotics is in effect an inquiry as to his habit in that regard. Does he use them habitually. To use them often or daily is, according to the ordinary acceptance of those words, to use them habitually.
Standing alone, then, Robinson is no authority for the proposition that the Eighth Amendment prevents punishment of an addict for acts he is "compelled" to do by his addiction, since Robinson recognizes no compulsion in addiction. Robinson simply illustrates repugnance at the prospect of punishing one for his status as an addict.
In the case analysis it is important to keep the concept of loss of self-control separate from the definition of addiction. This is the approach taken in Robinson, so for the Supreme Court, at least, the judicial definition of addiction stops short of a loss of self-control, though it may recognize some compelling aspects of the craving for the drug. This distinction is illustrated in some of Mr. Justice Harlan's remarks made in his concurrence in Robinson:
[I]n this case the trial court's instructions permitted the jury to find the appellant guilty on no more proof than that he was present in California while he was addicted to narcotics. Since addiction alone cannot reasonably be thought to amount to more than a compelling propensity to use narcotics, the effect of this instruction was to authorize criminal punishment for a bare desire to commit a criminal act.
In other'Words, addiction is the physical craving to have the drug, a craving which can arise from a number of different causes, not all of them voluntary or even self-induced. As Justice Harlan's remarks make clear, however, it is the craving which may not be punished under the Eighth Amendment, and not the acts which give in to that craving. Furthermore, while addiction may be a "compelling propensity to use narcotics," it is not necessarily an irresistible urge to have them. The failure in many minds to keep the concept of addiction separate from irresistible compulsion, or loss of self-control, has resulted in much confusion, as will be explored below.
B.
The Eighth Amendment defense for chronic alcoholics advanced by some members of the Court in Powell v. Texas, that is, the interpretation that Robinson held that it was not criminal to give in to the irresistible compulsions of a "disease," weaves in and out of the Powell opinions, but there is definitely no Supreme Court holding to this effect.
1. Justice Marshall, writing for four members of the Court, distinguished public drunkenness from Robinson, since the acts amounting to this kind of public behavior were much more than the "mere status" for which punishment was prohibited in Robinson. Justice Marshall rejected the notion of the four dissenters that Robinson stood for "the 'simple' but 'subtle' principle that '[cjriminal penalties may not be inflicted upon a person for being in a condition he is powerless to change.' " Justice Marshall noted that in the view of the dissenters appellant's public intoxication was " 'occasioned by a compulsion symptomatic of the disease' of chronic alcoholism, and thus apparently, his behavior lacked the critical element of mens rea." Justice Marshall, in disassociating himself and his three brother Justices from this view, noted that Robinson did not deal with the question "whether certain conduct cannot constitutionally be punished because it is, in some sense 'involuntary' or 'occasioned by a compulsion.' " He concluded simply that "criminal penalties may be inflicted only if the accused has committed some act, has engaged in some behavior, which society has an interest in preventing, or perhaps in historical common law terms, has committed some actus reus."
2. Appellant's position seems to be that if a defendant is compelled to use narcotics due to a serious physical craving (addiction), but can acquire the narcotics with money obtained by legal means (such as relying on the labor of other members of his family), the court can find no free will on the part of the defendant, since he acts as a result of compulsion, not from choice. Indeed, so the argument goes, since the money used to buy drugs is procured through perfectly legal means, there is really no guilt involved, merely disease. Thus appellant argues that the acts resulting from addiction to narcotics must be treated in the manner that addiction to alcohol was considered in Powell.
Where the asserted analogy with Powell breaks down, however, is, first, that the acts in Powell were held to be punishable, as Justice White's separate opinion for the majority makes clear. Second, here the acquisition and possession of the addictive substance by Moore are illegal activities, whereas in Powell the "addict" induced his addictive state through legal means. Powell's violation was in actions taken later, which to four members of the Court were punishable without question, and which to Justice White were punishable so long as the acts had not been proved to be the product of an established irresistible compulsion. In Moore, however, the acquisition and possession of the addictive substance (narcotics) are themselves illegal, whether considered as initial acts causing addiction or acts resulting from addiction.
While we always start with where we are, or the present condition of the addict in this case, we cannot ignore how the defendant became an addict. The dissenters here dwell on established principles:
Thus criminal responsibility is assessed only when through "free will" a man elects to do evil, and if he is not a free agent, or is unable to choose or to act voluntarily, or to avoid the conduct which constitutes the crime, he is outside the postulate of the law of punishment.
Moore could never put the needle in his arm the first and many succeeding times without an exercise of will. His illegal acquisition and possession are thus the direct product of a freely willed illegal act.
According to the appellant's thesis, an addict only has a choice as to the manner in which he obtains the funds (or the drugs) to support his habit; this neglects the choice that each addict makes at the start as to whether or not he is going to take narcotics and run the risk of becoming addicted to them. Although the narcotics user may soon through continued use acquire a compulsion to have the drug, and thus be said to have lost his self-control (insofar as he must take the drug regularly) due to a "disease," it is a disease which he has induced himself through a violation of the law. In contrast to the alcoholic Powell, the drug addict Moore has contracted a disease which virtually always commences with an illegal act.
3. As a final point with regard to Powell, we find the same concern we discussed under II, supra, voiced by Justice Black: "The rule of constitutional law urged upon us by appellant would have a revolutionary impact on the criminal law, and any possible limits proposed for the rule would be wholly illusory." We are wary of the multitude of acts which are now crimes and which might have to be excused if appellant's defense were accepted, since
If the original boundaries of Robinson are to be discarded, any new limits too would soon fall by the wayside and the Court would be forced to hold the States powerless to punish any conduct that could be shown to result from a "compulsion," in the complex, psychological meaning of that term.
C.
Passing on from Robinson and Powell, we come to the case on which much of the present appeal is based, Watson v. United States (1970). In Watson the appellant, a heroin addict, was convicted for violations of 21 U.S.C. § 174, and 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a), the Jones-Miller and Harrison Acts, which respectively forbid fraudulent importation and the purchase, sale, dispensation, or distribution of narcotic drugs not in the appropriately taxpaid stamped package. For all practical purposes, because of the particular evidentiary provisions of the two Acts, proof of mere possession of the narcotic is enough to convict under either, and so the crime is often spoken of as one for "possession" of narcotic drugs. This was really the crime for which appellant Watson was convicted, and although in appellant Moore's case there are powerful elements of trafficking (discussed under I, supra), he contends that he was guilty of the crime of possession, and of possession for his own use. Among the other arguments made in Watson, as here by appellant, was the proposition that after Robinson it is constitutionally impermissible to punish a narcotics addict for possession of narcotics which he has only for his own use.
While discussing this defense, this court in Watson believed that the record was not adequate properly to support such a defense, and the case was decided on another ground, i. e., that the two-prior-felony disqualifying provision of Title II of the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966 unconstitutionally barred Watson from possible beneficial treatment under that Act. Judge McGowan's discussion in the court's opinion to the effect that "if Robinson's deployment of the Eighth Amendment as a barrier to California's making addiction a crime means anything, it must also mean in all logic that (1) Congress did not intend to expose the non-trafficking addict-possessor to criminal punishment, or (2) its effort to do so is as unavailing constitutionally as that of the California legislature" is therefore dicta. These dicta have been very persuasive, particularly in light of the explicit framework which Judge McGowan set forth for the raising of the defense, and it has occasionally been successfully used in the trial courts of the District. The case at bar, however, is the first time that we have been in the position to change these dicta into a holding, and to rule conclusively that Robinson represents a constitutional bar to conviction of a non-trafficking addict-possessor.
As made amply clear earlier, we believe Robinson supports no such determination. Any widening of the Eighth Amendment rationale should come from the Supreme Court, hence we are not prepared to hold that appellant, if he were a mere addict-possessor would have an Eighth Amendment defense. Despite all their labors through the divergent opinions in Robinson and Powell, the dissenters here are able to derive nothing more certain than that we should interpret the federal narcotic statutes in such a way as to "avoid serious doubts of their constitutionality." Although we would phrase the issue differently, we are in accord with Judge McGowan's desire that the Supreme Court "be effectively entreated to explain, more fully than it has done so far, how it is that California may not, consistently with the Federal Constitution, prosecute a person for being an addict, but the United States can criminally prosecute an addict for possession of narcotics for his personal use." Given the demonstrated divergence and inconclusiveness of the Supreme Court's views, it is not incumbent upon us to force this explanation by widening the Eighth Amendment defense, but rather to leave it where the Supreme Court has left it until it chooses, perhaps by this appellant's prompting, to make such a holding.
Our hesitancy to rush in where the High Court has feared to tread is reinforced by this court's opinions in Watson itself, which show that it is not inconsistent to excuse the addict in Robinson on Eighth Amendment grounds, but to deny such relief to the addict-possessor in Watson and Moore. As Judge McGowan observed, and as Judge Bazelon concluded in his opinion for the three-judge panel which preceded en banc determination in Watson, the majority in Powell "unmistakably recoiled from opening up new avenues of escape from criminal accountability by reason of the compulsions of such things as alcoholism and, presumably, drug addiction — conditions from which it is still widely assumed, rightly or wrongly, that the victim retains some capacity to liberate himself." Thus it would appear that according to the Supreme Court, "rightly or wrongly," an addict is not under an "irresistible compulsion" to possess narcotics, but retains some ability to extricate himself from his addiction by ceasing to take the drugs. Thus it would certainly not be "cruel and unusual punishment" to convict him for possessing the narcotics, since the decision to possess is one that he makes at least in part of his own volition, especially at the beginning of his habit.
On the other hand, once a person has taken a certain amount of narcotics his body develops a craving for more (this, of course, is "addiction" as Justice Harlan defined it), a physical craving which he cannot prevent, and for which, the Supreme Court has said in Robinson, he may not be punished. Taking into account this view of addiction, which view seems to us to be the one taken by the Supreme Court in Robinson, it is not inconsistent to say that an addict may not be punished for his craving' (his "addiction") but may be punished when he makes the decision not to subject himself to the admittedly painful process of withdrawal, gives in to his craving and commits acts in violation of law and which continue his addiction.
Far from being "cruel and unusual punishment," the rationale of punishment for such acts has been set forth in Robinson and Powell, especially in the opinions of Justices Black, Harlan, and Marshall. There is no Eighth Amendment defense for the addict-possessor.
IV. Congressional Intent to Punish Addict-Possessors
A.
Aside from the logical fallacies in appellant's argument outlined above, the line which he asks this court to draw concerning the mens rea involved in drug addiction may not be drawn by this court for other, perhaps more important, reasons of policy and power. The choice that appellant would have us make is the reverse of the choice made by early English judges in carving out an exception to the common law defense of duress; they declined to apply it to the crime of murder. The policy judgment made by these common law judges was that, because of the great value which the common law placed on human life, one should risk one's own life rather than take that of an innocent.
The problem with our making the choice that appellant urges is that, unlike common law judges who were perhaps the major legal policy-making body before the rise of the parliamentary system as we know it today, this court is not the appropriate body to make such a policy judgment. Congress is now the best forum with resources adequate to determine the implications of such a policy, to evaluate the social, scientific, and psychological premises underlying such a policy, to make the appropriate rules, and to establish the necessary mechanisms (including the funding) to carry them out.
B.
We can best approach this problem of the role of Congress and the courts here by now considering the possible defense mentioned but not recognized by Judge McGowan in Watson, urged by appellant here, and accepted by Judge Wright in his opinion. It is argued that Congress never intended for the provisions of federal statutes making it a crime to possess narcotics to apply to addicts who possess narcotics for their own use. We cannot subscribe to this argument. Never, in many different narcotics control acts and their amendments, dating back to 1909, did Congress say this. What justification would this court have for writing it into law now? Only a clear constitutional mandate could call for such action on our part. For this court to find such would demonstrate a perception the Supreme Court has not achieved. As is obvious from Judge Wright's dissent, if there is one thing certain, it is that the constitutional question is far from clear.
Furthermore, the two latest congressional pronouncements are squarely contrary to the statutory interpretation appellant urges here. As Judge Reilly of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals noted in Wheeler v. United States (1971), Congress made it dear that in enacting the District's "Rehabilitation of Users of Narcotics" statute it did not mean to exclude from criminal punishment persons addicted to the use of narcotics, at least in the District of Columbia. Congress said in the preamble to that Act:
The Congress intends that Federal criminal laws shall be enforced against drug users as well as other persons, and sections 24-601 to 24-611 shall not be used to substitute treatment for punishment in cases of crime committed by drug users.
If Congress had intended that addicts in the District of Columbia should not be prosecuted for the crime of possession, Congress would have qualified § 24-601 to that effect. Congress had the problem of drug users (addicts), their punishment and treatment, squarely before it, and declined to make any distinction as to what acts constituted a crime by an addict or non-addict. This conclusion is virtually inescapable, as Congress defined "drug user" (as that term is employed in the preamble just quoted) to include "any person, including a person under eighteen years of age, who uses any habit-forming narcotic drugs so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare, or who is so far addicted to the use of such habit-forming drugs as to have lost the power of self-control with reference to his addiction."
Appellant argues for rejection of this interpretation of the "Rehabilitation of Users of Narcotics" statute, on the theory that to accept it would be to assume "that Congress enacted a complex statutory scheme for treatment of narcotic addicts which it never intended to be utilized," since under this interpretation addicts could be punished for possession, and possession being a "criminal act" under § 24-601, all addicts thus would have to be punished criminally, and not be treated under the rehabilitation statute.
With all respect, we submit that such a reading of the statute, which leads to its rejection of an intent to punish addict-possessors, is simply incorrect. We read the provision that says the statute shall not be used "to substitute treatment for punishment in eases of crime committed by drug users" as meaning that, when the Government is able successfully to prosecute any drug user for a criminal offense under any federal statute, it may do so. The Rehabilitation Act is NOT the only statute applying to drug users; if the Government has the evidence, it may invoke any applicable criminal statute. As Judge Wright in his dissent points out, drug use among addicts and others in some areas has reached epidemic proportions, and the difficulty of amassing evidence and securing convictions for possession and other crimes committed by drug users is in many instances insurmountable. For many of these drug users the rehabilitation statute presents a feasible and humane method of treatment which the Government may pursue through the securing of evidence of such persons' addiction, and this may be particularly appropriate where, for any of a multitude of reasons, criminal prosecution under other federal statutes is not called for. On the other hand, Congress made it clear that this procedure shall not be used in the case of some persons, explicitly those "charged with a criminal offense, whether by indictment, information or otherwise, or under sentence for a criminal offense, whether [they are] serving the sentence, or [are] on probation or parole, or [have] been released on bond pending appeal."
We do not view this rehabilitation statute as evincing intent not to punish addict-possessors, but merely as one more attempt by the Congress to reach an accommodation between its avowed twin aims of eliminating the traffic in harmful narcotics and rehabilitating those damaged by that traffic.
While it is true that other statutes, most notably the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966, evince a legislative purpose that after addicts are pros ecuted they should be treated medically whenever possible rather than placed in prison, it remains true that D.C.Code § 24-601 et seq. may not be used to substitute treatment for punishment, and we must assume that the congressional intent spelled out in that civil commitment statute to enforce the federal criminal laws against drug users (i. e., to prosecute them) remains, unless it is subsequently repudiated by Congress.
Far from overruling this manifestation of congressional intent, just as it has done in the past, Congress has continued to enact legislation under the terms of which addicts and all others can be and are being prosecuted for narcotics possession and trafficking.
The fact that not one of the numerous congressional enactments makes exception for addicts, and that many of them were passed when there were cases of' conviction of narcotics addicts for narcotic offenses on the books, may be taken to indicate that Congress intends for addicts to be prosecuted like anyone else. See Sutherland, Statutory Construction § 4510, 5101, 5103-5105, 5107, 5109 (3d ed. 1943). It is argued that it is equally likely that Congress desired to remain neutral in this issue. In light of the strong sentiment of many members of Congress against all drug users, of which Congress was most justly aware we refuse to impute such motives to Congress.
Thus while Congress has not explicitly provided that addiction shall not be an affirmative defense to a charge of possessing illicit narcotics, the congressional intent to prosecute drug users expressed in D.C.Code § 24-601, buttressed by Congress' legislative activity both before and after that expression of legislative intent, demonstrates that Congress has preempted this court's authority to create a common law defense. It is hornbook law that when the legislature has spoken, what might have been the common law is altered, and judges (including this court) may not change the law back because they would have favored a different policy, unless there is a constitutional mandate, which, of course, would operate irrespective of judicial preferences.
Furthermore, although this is of limited help in determining what the law was when appellant was arrested, the latest narcotics legislation, the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (passed 27 October 1970), contains two highly significant provisions relevant to congressional intent and policy in the area of narcotics control. First, the statute has penal provisions making it "unlawful for any person" to commit the proscribed acts; second, § 844 in particular makes it unlawful "for any person knowingly or intentionally to possess a controlled substance unless such substance was,obtained directly, or pursuant to a valid prescription or order from a practitioner . . . . " The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act provides a much lighter penalty for simple possession (and for the first time explicitly makes simple possession an offense), but this by no means suggests that possession by an addict did not give rise to an offense before the statute. On the contrary, we find the conclusion inescapable that Congress rejected the notion of excusing addicts from guilt for possession, and instead decided to reduce the penalties for simple possessions across the board. Now to create the defense appellant seeks in the face of the explicit prohibition against possession by any person in 21 U.S.C. § 844 would be directly contrary to the expressed will of Congress.
C.
In his brief appellant makes much of the apparent analogy between the statutory scheme dealing with the rehabilitation of alcoholics analyzed in Easter v. District of Columbia, which resulted in this court's allowing alcoholics a defense for public drunkenness, and the statutory scheme in the District for dealing with drug addiction. Judge Wright's opinion also relies on the analogy to Easter. The implication, of course, is that we should use the same reasoning to find a defense for the addict-possessor.
Even if we were persuaded by the analogy, and we are not, we would certainly not grant appellant's defense on the theory that this will pressure Congress into providing the facilities for treatment of the many addicts who could then only be civilly committed. Aside from impropriety, this tactic was resoundingly unsuccessful in the Easter case, and we have no reason to believe it would fare better here. Immediately after Easter, it appeared that the facilities were simply not forthcoming and the average chronic alcoholic was worse off than he was pre-Easter, as demonstrated by a noticeable decline in the health and well-being of the District's chronic alcoholics.
D.
But apart from any aversion to pressuring Congress in this manner, there are significant and difficult differences between the problems of chronic alcoholism and narcotics addiction. In dealing with the problem of alcoholism we have what is, after all, a single aim — the rehabilitation of alcoholics. With narcotics addiction, however, we must take account of at least two aims, the first being (like alcoholism) the rehabilitation of addicts, but the second (quite different) being the complete elimination of the addictive substance. The existence of these two policies is particularly troubling where their implementation may be contradictory. For instance, while the policy of rehabilitation might well be served by giving addicts a defense to possession for their own use, and instead providing mandatory hospital treatment, the possible penalties for possession help the police by providing them a means to use their prosecutorial discretion to enlist addict-informers to aid in ferreting out the wholesale sources of the drug traffic, and the threat of possible punishment persuades some addicts to undertake rehabilitation under such schemes as the Narcotics Addict Rehabilitation Act, which they might otherwise choose not to undergo.
Faced with the need to reconcile these two aims, of eliminating the drug traffic and the rehabilitation of addicts, and under great pressure from advocates pushing for one or the other aim, Congress has reached a reasonable accommodation through such means as the Narcotics Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966 and the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Judge Wright's dissent asserts: "But punishment of addict possessors is neither a reasonable nor a necessary means to achieve this goal." If the issue is thus placed on pragmatic grounds, whose judgment is entitled to prevail, that of Congress or of this court?
Aside from the fact that this construction of the law is neither constitutionally compelled nor reflects the intent of Congress in the legislation on the books, if we recognize that the use of narcotics is an evil — and it is, opium is a killer —-then the adoption of a policy of interpretation which removes criminal penalties and sanctions from the mass use of opiates is just as misguided as the individual's use of opiates for his own particular problems.
One startling fact, and probable consequence, of accepting the line of reasoning advanced by appellant lies buried in Judge Wright's dissent on page 1227. In describing three categories of narcotics addicts, Judge Wright states:
The second category is comprised of those addicts who are employed in the medical and paramedical professions. The rate of addiction among these professions appears to be almost SO times greater than that of the general population, but since these individuals have ready access to drugs such as morphine and demerol, they frequently escape the need to pay the exorbitant prices for their supplies that lead other addicts to crime.
This has been a well-known fact for many years, that easy access through legal channels, as can be had by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospital orderlies, etc., leads inevitably to a tremendous rate of narcotics addiction. These are not a class of people who can be termed culturally or economically deprived in any way. They do not have associations with criminals nor with the lower economic and social classes. Yet the mere fact of easy access to the drugs has created an addiction rate 30 times that of the general population. Viewed pragmatically, the cited language offers a powerful argument in favor of never removing the criminal penalties for possession of drugs, an argument for never legitimatizing possession.
We have seen civilizations which reached the carpet slipper stage, and slowly drowsed away beside the fading fires of genius. Ours may be the first civilization to speed the process by the deliberate injection of drugs into our culture; without waiting for the natural sleep of old age, we hasten to evade our feared crushing burdens by permitting those who crave it to slip into an opium haze.
Congress has not ceased to attempt to fashion new ways to deal with these problems of narcotics addiction; hence, on the shaky foundations — constitutional, precedential, interpretative— advanced by appellant, it would be unthinkable to write our own new law that might undercut some of these congressional efforts. We are supported in our conclusion by Judge Leventhal's eloquent and exhaustive analysis of Congress' intent in passing the various enactments discussed above and the consequent need for judicial restraint.
Our reluctance to make new law is not, as Judge Wright appears to suggest, "to shut our eyes in ignorance and allow injustice to persist in blind imitation of the past.'' Our course of action is simply to leave the innovations in this area to a body more capable of making decisions on them than are we. The extremely difficult and complex questions involved in the problems of rehabilitation of addicts and elimination of the illicit drug traffic are best solved by the kind of extended debate and investigation possible in the legislature. Judicial modesty and restraint may not make the headlines, but they have their place.
V. Conclusion
The writer and Judges MacKinnon and Robb, concurring in this opinion, would simply affirm both appellant Moore's convictions and the sentences he received. However, this view does not command a majority of the court. Judges McGowan and Leventhal would likewise affirm Moore's convictions, but would remand for the District Court to give further consideration of NARA disposition.
Therefore, there being a majority of five judges voting to affirm all convictions, but there being no initial majority for either of the three proposed methods of acting on this appeal, the writer and Judges MacKinnon and Robb acquiesce in the method of affirming Moore's convictions on all counts, vacating the sentences imposed, and remanding to the District Court for resentencing. In so doing, we intimate no dissatisfaction with the sentences originally imposed by the District Judge nor do we suggest his ultimate disposition of Moore's ease.
LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge;
with whom
McGOWAN, Circuit Judge, concurs.
This is an appeal from convictions under 21 U.S.C. § 174, 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a), following a police raid on, and arrest of appellant Moore in, a hotel room being used for a heroin capping operation. The verdict was permitted to rest on evidence that Moore was in possession of heroin. Appellant's contention is that he was improperly precluded from proffering as a defense that he was a heroin addict, without the power of self-control with respect to the drug.
The case was put en banc to consider matters not resolved in our en banc opinion in Albert Watson v. United States, 141 U.S.App.D.C. 335, 439 F.2d 442 (1970). After consideration of pertinent principles of common law jurisprudence, constitutional doctrine, and statutory provisions, including the 1970 law passed by Congress subsequent to Watson, permitting and implementing a disposition of narcotic addicts through probation conditioned on treatment, we conclude the judgment of conviction should be affirmed and the case remanded, in the interest of justice, see 28 U. S.C. § 2106, for further consideration of a disposition under the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act (NARA).
In Watson we started to ponder difficulties posed to us by the iron rigidity of inexorable sentences for narcotic addicts chargeable only with possession or purchase for personal use. But in Watson we did not finalize an approach in terms of validity of conviction, in view of the record as presented, and we focused on dispositional alternatives— NARA.
In the present case, we have an outright attack on conviction, forcefully presented. The question is presented as a form of mens rea defense that negatives criminal responsibility, and would require society to proceed only by way of civil proceedings. If we had been faced with the rigidity that prevailed in the 1950's, with minimum prison sentences without respite, we might well have joined in an opinion that recognized the defense, either on common law grounds or constitutional considerations or some combination of these.
While our opinion parallels that written by Judge Wilkey in some ways, the differences in approach are not insignificant. Our opinion reflects a process— of reexamination of an approach previously, if tentatively, indicated in Watson — in which the doctrinal factors have not been as cogent as our examination of, and increasing awareness of the limitations in, the technical knowledge concerning crucial aspects of the narcotic addiction problem. This is a thicket, not impenetrable we hope, but one that requires tough and slow going, and something different from a sharp scythe of judicial doctrine to cut brush. The proposed broad psychological drug dependence defense would not only require an extension of conventional judicial doctrine, as we point out, but an extension that is inappropriate in view of the problems of verifiability rooted in the inadequacies of our knowledge. Our conclusion, that at the present juncture justice neither compels nor warrants that kind of extension of judicial doctrine, is based in critical degree on our detailed study of the successive steps taken by the Congress in recent years, its heeding of expert voices focusing on its past mistakes, and its provision for research and continued reexamination. In that context, we think the ultimate problems of law and policy should be addressed by the Congress without judicial intrusion at this time.
Our conclusion that the addiction defense should not be recognized, even for drug possession offenses, at the present juncture, does not mean that we think this defense, is contrary to sound policy, but rather that the issues are such that the ultimate consideration of the problems of law and policy require the attention of the legislature. While a court cannot abdicate its judicial function of assessing the validity of what the Congress has done and intended, the court must also take into account the uncertain state of present knowledge, and the salutary deference to Congressional latitude in finding a way to cope with the problems of heroin addiction and addiction-related crimes.
Since it is not necessary to recognize a narcotic addiction (or dependence) defense to secure just dispositions in the future, given the provisions of the 1970 law, we see no compelling reason to inject the defense into convictions governed by the prior law. In a way this is a corollary — by way of ^converse — to the Supreme Court's modern doctrine of retroactivity, or should one say prospectivity. Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965). The fact that judicial decisions contemplate changes for the future is good sense, for the mistakes of the past are left to the past and the administrative burden of this correction is not permitted to lay a dead hand on adaptation to modern perceptions and needs. Con versely, when judicial intervention is not necessary to assure justice for the future, sound judgment cautions against any approach of judicial overhaul.
In the large, this approach permits the courts to focus on each individual's condition in terms of disposition, rather than guilt of the substantive offense. This approach has many strengths. It has particular strengths for the future in view of the probation possibilities under the 1970 legislation.
There is an awkward junction point for defendants like appellant whose offenses, under prior legislation, were reached by sentences imposed prior to May 1, 1971. Serious questions of fairness are raised by the unavailability of either an addiction defense or the range of dispositions made possible by the 1970 Act. To some extent a court must be satisfied if it sees a trend in improvement of justice. As to the particular case, we think the appropriate disposition is to remand the case for further consideration of the possibility of disposition of appellant within the structure of NARA.
The path we have found was not clearly marked. We have done much soul searching, with reexamination of assumptions. Ideally, we should have preferred to write an opinion half as long and twice as crisp. But this was a case where the picture emerged as in a mosaic, after the numerous tiles were sorted and laid out. We present our views with full appreciation of the strengths of the differing views presented by our colleagues.
I. FACTS OF OFFENSE, AND DISTRICT COURT DISPOSITION
Prosecution Evidence
An informant advised the police of heroin sales being made in the Warren Hotel by "Crip Green" (room 15) and "Jumbo" (room 17), and made buys on January 25 and 26, 1970, under police supervision. Warrants were obtained, and executed on January 29. When Officer Daly entered room 15 at about 7:00 p. m., he found appellant Moore and another man in circumstances permitting an inference by police and jury of appellant's possession of narcotics on a bed. The evidence would also, we think, have justified a finding that appellant was a participant in the capping operation, as the prosecution contended, but this was denied by appellant and the case was not put to the jury on that basis. Moore and his companion were arrested and searched; 50 capsules of mixed heroin were found in Moore's trouser pockets. Moore was charged on two counts — under the Jones-Miller Act of 1909, 21 U.S.C. § 174 (unlawfully imported substance) and under the Harrison Act, originally enacted in 1914, 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a) (package not tax-stamped) — as to the heroin on the bed, and two additional counts on the drugs in his pockets.
Theory of Defense
The theory of the defense, referred to as his Watson defense, is that guilt cannot be established by proof of possession by a non-trafficking addict, that this would be inconsistent with (a) Congres sional intention, and (b) constitutional principles, particularly as developed in Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758 (1962). The trial court rejected this so-called Watson defense, first by denying defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment, and later by excluding evidence and denying requested instructions.
Defense counsel proffered, through the testimony of Dr. Harold Kaufman, a psychiatrist on the staff of St. Elizabeths Hospital, heard by the court out of the presence of the jury, that appellant had a compulsion to inject heroin and therefore to possess heroin illegally, that appellant suffered from drug addiction, and that this was not a mental disease but a "disorder." Dr. Kaufman's proffered testimony is amplified below (see fn. 11 and text thereto). It suffices, for present purposes, that defendant was not claiming that he was under the pharmacological duress of "withdrawal" at the time of the offense. The claim rather focused on his psychological compulsion to inject heroin.
The court ruled there was no defense of non-responsibility on ground of narcotic addiction, except as part of a defense of insanity. The insanity defense was negatived by Dr. Kaufman's own testimony, and the proffer of his testimony was rejected. Defense counsel decided not to introduce further evidence.
Before resting, defense counsel referred the court to appellant's pre-trial testimony, that he was a non-trafficking addict who came to the room to buy narcotics to supplement the supply in his pocket, and made a proffer of testimony of McKinley Gore, a former addict and a counselor of drug addicts with the District of Columbia Narcotics Treatment Administration (NTA), that some addicts do use more than 50 capsules daily, and have 50 or more capsules in their possession, and that appellant had been enrolled in the NTA methadone program since December 9, 1970, and his chances for rehabilitation were good.
The court gave standard instructions on narcotic offenses, and a charge covering constructive possession. He charged: "It is not a crime to be a narcotics addict, nor is the use of narcotics, standing alone, a crime." The court declined an instruction on appellant's Watson theory, and also apparently, appellant's requests for a "mens rea" instruction and an instruction defining addiction.
Sentencing
On February 24, 1971, the jury found Moore guilty on all counts. On February 26 the court entered an order committing defendant for examination pursuant to Title II of the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966 (NARA), 18 U.S.C. § 4252. A notice of appeal was filed March 8, 1971. On April 13, 1971, the NARA staff at Danbury Federal Correctional Institution reported to the District Court that Moore "was an addict, both physically and psychologically dependent on heroin" but was not likely to be rehabilitated by treatment.
At the sentencing proceeding, held June 14, 1971 after the brief on appeal had been filed in this court by the appellate counsel appointed May 4, defense trial counsel submitted that Danbury's conclusion did not mean appellant is an unwilling patient or one who does not want a cure, but reflected the fact that Danbury uses a complete abstinence program and not the methadone method of treatment, with which Mr. Moore, had been cooperating. When the trial judge sought confirmation from appellant concerning his criminal record, defense trial counsel conceded he had a long criminal record but submitted that it was "the record of a man forced by his addiction to commit these various offenses." The court sentenced appellant to concurrent terms of 6 years, and 2-6 years.
II. CONTENTIONS FOR REVERSAL
A. By Counsel for Appellant
Counsel representing appellant in this court are signally well-informed and have made an effective presentation, as follows:
1. Appellant is an addict — as appears from his own testimony that he was using an average of $60 per day of heroin at the time of the offense; Officer Daly's testimony that appellant was an addict; a 1969 NARA report to a judge of the then D.C. Court of General Sessions; and the April 13, 1971 NARA report of the trial judge. It was proffered that Dr. Kaufman would testify that appellant suffers, not from a mental illness, but from a mental disorder of a special character called "drug addiction," that he is subject to "drug dependence of morphine type" as defined by the World Health Organization, and that appellant was an "old addict," i. e., one who continuously had not only a physiological craving but also a psychological compulsion to inject heroin.
2. Basic common law principles of criminal responsibility and capacity entitle a defendant to show that he is "so far addicted to use of habit-forming narcotic drugs as to have lost the power of self-control with reference to his addiction" thus rendering his drug-related actions "involuntary."
3. Neither the statutes charged in the indictment, nor the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 preclude application of these basic principles.
4. If the statutes do preclude such application, then the Eighth Amendment —which embodies the same core principles or morality — bars appellant's conviction, under Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758, rehearing denied, 371 U.S. 905, 83 S.Ct. 202, 9 L.Ed.2d 166 (1962), and Powell v. Texas, 392 U.S. 514, 88 S.Ct. 2145, 20 L.Ed.2d 1254, rehearing denied, 393 U.S. 898, 89 S.Ct. 65, 21 L.Ed.2d 185 (1968).
5. Appellant concludes (Br. 102):
. [T]he compulsive acts inherent in a disease condition are no more blameworthy than having the disease itself. It is as barbarous to punish the one as the other. While it is cruel and unusual to punish an addict for the acts inherent in his addiction, it certainly could not be argued that adequate and appropriate rehabilitative treatment, including withdrawal from heroin, is anything but humane and the preferred approach. In short, Appellant does not urge that an addict has a constitutional or any other legal right to purchase and possess heroin for injection.
B. By Amicus Curiae
A reflective brief filed, with leave of court, on behalf of the Washington Area Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (WACADA), supports the jurisprudential argument of appellant's counsel, and further submits:
Our law enforcement forces are not equipped to deal with criminal behavior on the scale generated by the thousands of addicts, 17,000 officially estimated to reside in the District, who are daily (a) violating the narcotics laws and (b) engaged in other criminal activity to support the narcotics habit. The assignment of principal responsibility for dealing with drug addiction to the criminal justice system, instead of institutions better suited to deal with addiction, has produced a failure that has been expensive and intolerable to the community.
The judicial system is clogged and distorted. A 1971 study, conducted by an official of the D.C. Bail Agency, indicates that of all defendants charged with crime in the District of Columbia, approximately 50% have an indication of narcotics use, and of these 40% were charged solely with narcotics offenses, primarily possession. Even the select group released on personal recognizance show a recidivism rate for addicts, of 24%, almost twice the rate for all other offenders. However, addicts released on condition of treatment at D.C.'s NTA had a recidivism rate less than half that of other addicts.
The WACADA Council agrees that the criminal justice system should hold addicts who commit non-drug crimes, though with "treatment rather than simple incarceration," but submits it should not reach mere possessors of drugs, and thus burden public facilities without any benefit in deterrent or rehabilitative effect. A defense of lack of power to control his drug behavior would permit treatment under, e. g., the 1953 D.C. Hospital Treatment Act, 24 D.C.Code § 601 et seq. (1967), by institutions developed and designed to deal with drug addiction.
The Council sees a paradox, but no inconsistency, in its position that addicts should not be held criminally responsible for actions necessary to satisfy addiction, while rehabilitation centers are. trying to make addicts bear more responsibility for their welfare and behavior to others, including crimes and drug behavior. While the Council would prefer a simple statutory exemption, in the situation as it exists "the result we seek must come about within the context of the common law principles of 'responsibility.' So be it. We dislike the means, but we are convinced that the present situation is desperate, and the consequence of its continuation unacceptable. We therefore urge the Court to hold that Raymond Moore and others similarly situated may present the defense of their addiction [as] the necessary first step in the process of making the criminal justice system the instrumentality for identifying addicts so that they may be properly treated. [T]he consequence of not confessing to the criminal law's inability to control drug addiction is that the criminal process becomes part of the problem, rather than part of the solution." (Brief at 23-24).
III. THIS CASE SHOULD BE DECIDED IN THE CONTEXT OF EVOLUTION OF CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION PREMISED BROADLY ON MAXIMUM USE OF REHABILITATION OF NARCOTIC ADDICTS.
A. The Focusing of Our Inquiry on the 1970 Law
The Jones-Miller Act and Harrison Act did not prohibit possession of narcotics as such, but under the provisions frequently referred to as "possession" offenses, proof of possession sufficed to sustain conviction of importation, or of purchase in a non-stamped package.
These laws were repealed by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, P.L. 91-513. That act wrought three significant changes. First, it expressly prohibited simple possession of narcotic drugs as controlled substances, see § 404(a), 21 U.S.C. § 844. Second, it made that offense a misdemeanor, sharply reducing penalties that might be applied to persons on mere evidence of possession. Most important, Congress repealed the provision, included in the Price Daniel Act of 1956 (note 18, infra) that had precluded probations or suspended sentences as to most convictions under the Jones-Miller and Harrison Acts, see 26 U.S.C. § 7237(d). Probation is now prohibited only in ease of a "continuing criminal enterprise." 21 U.S.C. § 848.
Appellant's counsel submit that his contentions rest on broad principles which require the same disposition on the merits as to prosecutions under both the earlier laws and the 1970 law. Counsel have urged us, in effect, to consider the conviction as if it were under the 1970 law. They make no argument based on the particular provisions or earlier history of the prior statutes. We think it appropriate to broadly consider applicable principles and Congressional intention in the light of the 1970 law. In short, the validity of appellant's conviction will be appraised as equivalent in all material respect to one entered under the 1970 law for knowing possession.
We are aware that this is somewhat unusu.al, particularly since the Supreme Court has recently held, in Bradley v. United States, that the 1970 law's provision permitting the use of probation henceforth was accompanied by another provision precluding its use for offenses committed prior to the effective date of the 1970 law. However, on focusing on the defense in issue, we have come to the conclusion that while there are occasional legislative and judicial statements that might have been seized on as indications that the earlier laws were not intended to be applicable to persons possessing or purchasing heroin for their own use, these were -essentially insubstantial wisps — which would, incidentally, have also excluded mere users who had not lost "control." As to the lack-of-control issue, we conclude that even in the 1970 law, with its more moderate approach, Congress did not intend to provide for the kind of drug dependence defense appellants have urged. The developments of the 1970 law round out the picture, assuring us that the injection of a drug dependence defense as to prosecutions under either the prior laws, as they fade from view, or the 1970 law, would be an impermissible judicial interjection. We develop in subsequent parts of this opinion the reasons why we do not believe that the courts should develop such a defense as an extension of the general jurisprudence that provides the setting for criminal prosecutions. As to the issue of Congressional contemplation, the fact that we glean its contours in large measure from an examination of current developments in narcotics legislation broadly considered, is, we think, a sound approach for ascertaining legislative intent.
B. The Increasing Severity of the Legislation of the 1950's
Understanding of pertinent Congressional intent will be aided by first recalling the Federal narcotics legislation of the 1950's, laws that have been characterized as the turning of the screw.
The mandatory minimum, no probation, no-parole provisions of the Federal laws were not in the original Jones-Miller and Harrison Acts. These features were installed by amendment in 1951 and 1956, in reaction to the rising tide of drug abuse.
The Boggs Act of 1951, P.L. 82-255, 65 Stat. 767, placed a two-year minimum sentence on convictions under the Jones-Miller and Harrison laws. The Senate Report deemed prevailing sentences unequal to the task of stemming drug abuse. "It would appear . that the punishment which has been afforded narcotic law violators has not been an effective deterrent."
The Price Daniel Act of 1956, P.L. 84-728, 70 Stat. 567, raised the minimum penalty for a violation of the Jones-Miller law to five years, and in addition, introduced the no-probation provision codified at 26 U.S.C. § 7237(d). The House Report stated: "Drug addiction is not a disease." It evidenced considerable optimism that increasing penalties would cope with the drug problem. It claimed the 1951 penalties had reduced narcotic traffic, that illicit traffic continues in "problem areas where leniency with respect to sentencing of convicted traffickers is an established pattern in the courts." It recommended increasing severity in sentences as justified by "the factual evidence proving the deterring value of severe penalties for narcotic and marihuana law violations."
C. The Reassessment of the 1960's
The 1960's witnessed a continuing reassessment of approach, and an increasing realization and acceptance that the Government could not satisfactorily cope with the narcotic drug abuse problem by concentrating on law enforcement activities and a theory of deterrence, that there was need for removal of mandatory terms and reestablishment of probation and parole authority, for recognition of addiction as beset by disease aspects that could respond in some measure to treatment, and for multiple paths of research and experiment in keeping with the diverse aspects of the problems.
1. White House Conference on Narcotic and Drug Abuse (1962): The Emergence of Civil Commitment; Probation and Parole
The watershed was the first White House Conference on Narcotic and Drug Abuse, convened on September 27, 1962. The working paper of the Conference, the Report of an Ad Hoc Panel on Drug Abuse, identified drug abuse as a indication of an underlying character disorder, manifesting an inadequate personality unable to cope with the stresses of normal life. It recognized that we do not understand the origins of the disorders of the various types of addicts, or how to cure them, but posited that even an individual whose abuse has been terminated must be provided with support and supervision or he could not survive any stress without relapse.
The Conference was particularly advised of the legislative developments in California and New York. After ten years of increasing prison terms, the California legislature realized this might seem a panacea to the public mind but could not effectively cope with the problem. After study, it passed legislation establishing rehabilitation centers, available on certification by a court after conviction of an addict, with provision for controlled supervision after institutional treatment.
The New York law, not yet in force, went further, permitting criminal proceedings to be stayed, with provision for committal to a facility subject to medical supervision, release to out-patient probationary supervision, and abatement of the legal proceedings on. successful completion of the program.
A significant voice at the Conference was that of Senator Thomas J. Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, who opposed the rigid imprisonment features of the-1956 law, as of illusory value in deterrence and damaging in impact. Without leniency for "the professional criminals at the vortex of narcotic racketeering" there must be reform of the "excessively primitive and inhumane treatment now meted out to those who are essentially the victims of the narcotic racket." He recommended:
The problem of drug addiction is essentially a medical problem, a psychiatric problem. It cannot be solved by merciless prison sentences. I believe that the law should be amended to repeal mandatory minimum penalties and to restore the possibility of proba-' tion and parole for rehabilitated narcotic offenders.
Senator Dodd stated that the responses to his Committee's inquiries showed that these views were supported by a majority of Federal Judges, probation officers, prison wardens and United States attorneys.
2. Recommendation of President's Advisory Commission (1963)
Executive Order 11076, signed January 15, 1963, 28 Fed.Reg. 477, created the President's Advisory Commission on Narcotic and Drug Abuse, to submit recommendations based on an evaluation of the White House Conference. The Commission, chaired by our distinguished and revered late colleague, Judge E. Barrett Prettyman, rendered its report on November 1,1963.
Basic philosophy
The "Basic Philosophy" section of the Prettyman Commission report was reprinted in full in the 1970 House Committee Report, which stated that the 1970 law, added to previous measures, effectuated in whole or in part virtually all pertinent recommendations made by the Presidential Commissions in 1963 (Prettyman Commission) and in 1967 (so-called Katzenbach Commission). This is how the Prettyman Commission stated its Basic Philosophy:
The abuse of drugs has aroused two extreme attitudes — the punitive and the permissive.
Some people are concerned primarily with the effects of drug abuse on the community. Because most serious drug abusers return to drugs if left to themselves, these people would shut down the drug abuser away from society for as long as possible.
In contrast to this attitude, others hold that serious drug abuse is usually symptomatic of a mental disturbance and that the drug abuser is a sick person. They'attribute his crimes to an inner compulsion for which he should not be held responsible under our code of criminal justice. They feel that the drug abuser must be treated for his sickness rather than punished. Some feel his disease is incurable and that he should be maintained on the drug.
This Commission does not accept either of these extreme attitudes, but it subscribes to certain aspects of each. The drug abuser who steals or who sells drugs to finance his habit is guilty of a crime. Like any other citizen, he should face the consequences. Whether he can be held criminally responsible can only be decided in the courts, case by case. The Commission cannot assert a general rule that every confirmed drug abuser is so impelled by his habit .that he is not accountable for his acts under criminal law.
If the abuser is to be penalized, he should not be penalized in the spirit of retribution. The modern concept of criminology should apply — that penalties fit offenders as well as offenses.
Penalties should be designed to permit the offender's rehabilitation wherever possible. Although society must often be protected from the offender for a time, penalties in specific cases should recognize the need for reformation.
The deterrent effect of long sentences is vigorously debated. Some evidence indicates that the threat of long sentences may deter non-using traffickers, but it does not necessarily deter the drug abuser. Deterrence is essentially an appeal to a normal sense of reason which the drug abuser has lost. The persistence of narcotic abuse, despite severe penalties for the possession of narcotics, is persuasive evidence that the abuser will risk a long sentence for his drug.
The general philosophy of this Commission can be stated in three parts:
(1) The illegal traffic in drugs should be attacked with the full power of the federal government.
(2) The individual abuser should be rehabilitated.
(3) Drug users who violate the law by small purchases or sales should be made to recognize what society demands of them. In these instances, penalties should be applied according to the principles of our present code of justice. When the penalties involve imprisonment, however, the rehabilitation of the individual, rather than retributive punishment, should be the major objective.
Specific recommendations
Specifically the Prettyman Commission recommendations included the following :
(a) As to probation and parole:
That mandatory minimum sentences, and prohibition of probation, suspended sentences, and parole, be modified so that the sentencing judge have full discretion in the sentencing of those whose offense is possession of narcotics without intent to sell (and for all marihuana offenses).
(b) As to civil commitment:
After discussion of the New York and California programs, the Commission recommended "that a federal civil commitment statute be enacted to provide an alternative method of handling the federally convicted offender who is a narcotic or marijuana user."
3. Civil Commitment: Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966 (NARA)
The Prettyman Commission proposals as to civil commitment emerged, with some modification, in the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966 (NARA). NARA was intended to provide a rehabilitative approach, rather than a purely penal one. NARA was congruent with the 1953 D.C. law's philosophy, 24 D.C.Code § 601 et seq. (1967), that addicts were sick people, who need a helping hand, and which permitted a court order for confinement of a "drug user." However, the D.C. Act was made expressly inapplicable to "any person . . . charged with a criminal offense," 24 D.C.Code § 603(b). NARA went further and provided for civil commitment even of persons charged with crimes, in the case of crimes deemed related to drug abuse (with certain exceptions) .
NARA commitment provisions
The NARA provisions for civil commitment of narcotic addicts may be summarized as follows:
Title I — pretrial commitment for treatment, in lieu of prosecution, of addicts charged with Federal crime. 28 U.S.C. § 2901 ff.
Title II — commitment for treatment of addicts convicted of Federal crime. 18 U.S.C. § 4251 ff.
Title III — commitment for treatment of persons not charged with any Federal crime, on a petition by the addict or a related individual. 42 U.S.C. § 3411 ff.
Eligibility under Titles I and II was subject to statutory exclusions, e.g., any person charged with a crime of violence. A person charged with selling a narcotic drug is excluded from Title I, but not from Title II, if the sale was to enable him to obtain a narcotic drug which he required for his personal use.
Civil commitment requires a determination by the court that the narcotic addict is likely to be rehabilitated by treatment. Under Title I he is committed to the custody of the Surgeon General for treatment up to 36 months — in an institution, or on additional release in the community. If he successfully completes the treatment program, the criminal charge is dismissed, otherwise, the prosecution may be resumed. Under Title II, the convicted person is committed to the custody of the Attorney General who provides for his treatment, with provision for conditional release under supervision in the community, after six months commitment in a treatment institution.
D. Restoration of Rehabilitative Discretion of Sentencing Judge: The Controlled Substances Act of 1970
The other pertinent recommendation of the Prettyman Commission (1963) and Katzenbach Commission (1967) for restoration of discretionary authority in the sentencing judge (probation, including suspension of sentence; no mandatory minimum) and parole, was accomplished by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This was enacted as Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, P.L. 91-513, 84 Stat. 1236. This Prettyman Commission recommendation (text at note 31 swpra) was reiterated in 1967 by the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, which stated:
The Commission recommends: State and Federal drug laws should give a large enough measure of discretion to the courts and correctional authorities to enable them to deal flexibly with violators, taking account of the nature and seriousness of the offense, the prior record of the offender and other relevant circumstances.
The President's 1969 message, while recommending expansion of rehabilitation and research measures in recognition of an obligation of society to help the "genuinely sick people" dependent on drugs, stated that their sickness helps to explain, but not to excuse, the crimes they commit. However, the Administration made clear that its concern for such sick people, while not extending to exculpation, did embrace provision for treatment while on probation or parole.
Attorney General Mitchell, outlining the Administration's proposal at the hearings, emphasized the need for tailoring of disposition "to the requirements of the violation or the narcotics addict," both in length of detention, and in possibility of rehabilitation and treatment "while on probation or parole."
This approach was reflected in the 1969 report submitted by Senator Dodd in behalf of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was in line with Senator Dodd's presentation to the 1962 White House Conference. The Report stated:
It had also become apparent that the severity of penalties including the length of sentences does not affect the extent of drug abuse and other drug-related violations. The basic consideration here was that the increasingly longer sentences that had been legis lated in the past had not shown the expected overall reduction in drug law violations.
•>:-
The main thrust of the change in the penalty provisions is to eliminate all mandatory minimum sentences for drug law violations except for a special class of professional criminals. The field of penology has maintained the position that mandatory sentences hamper the process of rehabilitation of offenders. It has equally been maintained that such penalties infringe on the judicial function by not allowing the judge to use his discretion in individual cases.
The House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, H.R. Rep. No. 91-1444, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 19, U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News 1970, p. 4585 (1970), expressly implementing the Presidential Commission's recommendations for sentencing flexibility "to provide a greater incentive for rehabilitation," stated in its report:
Action. As discussed earlier in this report elimination of almost all mandatory minimum sentences, as well as elimination of the prohibition against probation and parole of narcotic offenders, is accomplished by this bill.
Furthermore, and significantly, the House Committee specifically voiced approval of probation on condition of treatment:
The Committee is confident that judges, in administering the provisions of this section, will recognize that many defendants coming before them will be in need of medical treatment and that judges will require that these persons undergo some form of prescribed treatment as a condition of their probation (at 49, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 1970, p. 4617).
Statutory provisions
The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 collects in one place prohibition and penalty provisions previously scattered; simplifies determination of what conduct is forbidden; and standardizes penalty provisions in a pattern whereby penalties bear some rational and continuous relationship to forbidden acts. Offenses involving drugs which carry (1) a high potential for abuse; (2) no recognized medical purposes and (3) danger of addiction or worse consequences, are treated as more serious than offenses involving less-dangerous, more-useful drugs. The misdemeanor of simple possession of controlled drugs (for one's personal use) was made subject to a maximum penalty of one year and $5,000 fine. An additional year and $5,000 fine was permitted for second and subsequent offenses.
No mandatory minimum terms were provided by the 1970 law, with a single exception not here material. The court's restored authority to use probation was enhanced by a provision that on the first offense of simple possession, if the offender has complied with the conditions of probation (not exceeding one year in duration), the court shall discharge the person and dismiss the proceedings, without entering any court adjudication of guilt on the verdict or plea of guilty. If the offender is below 21 when the offense occurs, he may obtain a court order expunging from all official records all recordation relating to his arrest, indictment, trial and finding of guilt. 21 U.S.C. § 844.
Dispositional options under probation— including treatment
The conception that narcotic addiction is a disease which explains, while it does not excuse, the conduct of defendants, is carried out by the approval, implied in the restoration of probation authority, and expressly voiced by the House Committee, contemplating probation orders conditioned on treatment.
Statutory authority to provide probation on conditions is set forth in the provisions of the Federal Probation Act, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3651. The suspension of imposition or execution of sentence is authorized when the court is "satisfied that the ends of justice and the best interest of the public as well as the defendant will be served thereby ." When sentence is suspended, the convicted person is placed on probation "for such period and upon such terms and conditions as the court deems best."
The power to impose conditions is a broad one, governed by the standard of reasonableness, which permits insulating the individual from the conditions that led him into trouble. Whaley v. United States, 324 F.2d 356 (9th Cir. 1963). "[T]he Probation Statute is a humanitarian piece of legislation and should, accordingly, be liberally interpreted by the courts." Mann v. United States, 218 F.2d 936, 940 (4th Cir. 1955). An intelligent compassion was the aim of Congress as appears from the legislative history reviewed in United States v. Murray, 275 U.S. 347, 355, 48 S.Ct. 146, 72 L.Ed. 309 (1928).
By an amendment to 18 U.S.C. § 3651, Pub.L. No. 91-492, 84 Stat. 1090, passed a few days before the comprehensive 1970 law, the court was given authority to require narcotic addicts to reside at or participate in treatment centers when the Attorney General certifies that adequate facilities, personnel and programs are available. By another amendment to 18 U.S.C. § 3651, passed May 11, 1972, Pub.L. No. 92-293, 86 Stat. 136, Congress authorized a court to require a person who is an addict under the NARA definition, 18 U.S.C. § 4251(a), "to participate in the community supervision programs" established by the Attorney General under Title II of NARA as a condition of probation . for all or part of the period of probation." This makes the community-based programs authorized for persons under NARA, available, under probation, for addict-offenders arguably ineligible for NARA treatment, but in like need of supportive adjustment.
IV. AT PRESENT STAGE OF LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS, APPROPRIATE JUDICIAL ROLE LIES IN UPHOLDING THE GENERAL VALIDITY OF UNLAWFUL POS-. SESSION VERDICTS FOR HEROIN ADDICTS,- TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE AVAILABILITY OF PROBATION AND TREATMENT, LEGISLATIVE INTENT, JUDICIAL DOCTRINE OF RESPONSIBILITY, CONSTITUTIONAL FACTORS, AND MEDICAL AND CLINICAL DATA
Taking into consideration the discernible contemplation of Congress, pertinent doctrines of responsibility, constitutional factors, and medical and clinical data, in the context of the restoration of probation flexibility, we conclude that the judicial role, at this juncture, lies in upholding the general validity of unlawful possession verdicts for heroin addicts.
A. Overall View of Congressional Intent
There was widespread construction of the Harrison and Jones-Miller Acts, as permitting prosecutions . based on evidence of possession of narcotic drugs by an addict for his own use. This is an entirely different matter from the disputes as to the way the Harrison Act was construed to preclude medical prescription of narcotics outside an institution.
The "simple possession" prohibition in the 1970 law, which follows the pattern of the widespread Uniform Narcotic Drug Act removes a marginal gap in the prior Federal legislation — e. g., for persons who received narcotics by gift, perhaps from a pusher So far as appellant's contention of a defense of incapacity or drug dependence is concerned, the 1970 law marks no shift in Congressional intent, but rather a continuance of absence of any Congressional contemplation of such a defense.
The 1967 Task Force Report, Narcotics and Drug Abuse, note 30 supra, rendered to the President's Crime Commission, exemplifies the widespread understanding that an addict's constant need for drugs was no defense to a charge, under State or Federal law, of possession of or purchase of narcotic drugs. This is the same Report that supported sentencing flexibility for the addict offender (text at note 36 supra). But it did not contemplate a defense on the merit's. The Report states (at p. 10):
Drug Offenses
Addiction itself is not a crime. It never has been under Federal law, and a State law making it one was struck down as unconstitutional by the 1962 decision of the Supreme Court in Robinson v. California. It does not follow, however, that a state of addiction can be maintained without running afoul of the criminal law. On the contrary, the involvement of an addict with the police is almost inevitable. By definition, an addict has a constant need for drugs, which obviously must be purchased and possessed before they can be consumed. Purchase and possession, with certain exceptions not relevant in the case of an addict, are criminal offenses under both Federal and State law. So is sale, to which many addicts turn to provide financial support for their habits. (Emphasis added).
The pertinent state rulings support the view that drug dependence did not establish a defense. In rejecting the claim, based on Robinson v. California, that the uniform possession prohibition was inapplicable to a narcotic addict because his possession only reflected his disease of addiction, the Illinois court held that knowing "possession" signifies a "voluntary act" and not a mere "status" or "condition."
The same analysis appears in other state rulings, e. g., Nutter v. State, 8 Md.App. 635, 262 A.2d 80 (1970), stating that the victims of unlawful drug traffic "are also criminals, not by reason of being addicts, . . . but, because, notwithstanding their addiction, they are responsible for certain of their acts, even though stemming from their addiction, which are crimes, as for example, possession and control of a narcotic drug." 262 A.2d at 86-87.
The modern practice in drafting penal legislation is to specify defenses when intended. Congress would have inserted an affirmative provision in the 1970 law, if it had contemplated a drug dependence defense. Exactly such an affirmative defense provision was proposed in § 1824 of the Study Draft of a new Federal Criminal Code, released for comment, in June 1970, by the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws.
Although that Commission's Staff on balance — after candidly discussing pertinent problems, which we shall note later —favored this defense, they (a) proposed it for adoption by the legislature, and (b) drafted it as an affirmative defense.
The hearings preceding the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 contain a submission by Professor Michael Rosenthal, identified as the staff consultant on Drug Laws to the National Commission on Reform of the Criminal Laws, speaking in his individual capacity. He proposed that simple possession, even of heroin, be at most a misdemeanor (except for organized criminal activity) and not a felony, subject to high (maximum) imprisonments, as proposed by the Administration ; his view became a feature of the law as eventually enacted. He made other suggestions that were not accepted by Congress — that possession not be made a Federal crime; alternatively that it be subject to diminished punishment, or acquittal, if "a defendant proved beyond a preponderance of evidence that he possessed only for personal use." A recommendation for a drug dependence defense was made by an authoritative medical voice, on the ground that it should be regarded as an illness; this was particularly urged for the amphetamines and barbiturates, which have a legitimate medical use. Congress did not enact any of these suggestions.
We do not think it can fairly be said that Congress contemplated a drug dependence defense to a Federal charge based on possession that had not been accepted by the State courts.
B. Interlock of Legislative Intent of Possession Statute and Judicial Doctrines of Criminal Responsibility
A statute prohibiting "possession" is not to be taken in a sense "which works manifest injustice or infringes constitutional safeguards," and so even if the words "intentionally or knowingly" had not been inserted in the 1970 law prohibiting possession of heroin and other controlled substances the court would have inferred a legislative intent to avoid criminality for "a possession which is not conscious and willing." Baender v. Barnett, 255 U.S. 224, 225, 41 S.Ct. 271, 65 L.Ed. 597 (1921).
The broad question raised by this case is whether or when possession of heroin by an addict, though conscious and intentional, lacks elements indispensable to criminality under fundamentals of our system of justice. Appellant contends that his conduct is excusable for lack of ability to control offending behavior, that his "long and intensive dependence on injected heroin stands on the same footing" as "a person forced under threat of death to inject heroin." (Brief at 4). We may fairly assume that a statute contemplates the defense of threat of death, as basic jurisprudence, even though not expressly noted. However, psychic dependence, and a claim of psychic incapacity, did not establish a defense under settled judicial doctrine that Congress may reasonably be said to have contemplated.
Untenability of impaired control concept as universal and absolute defense negativing criminal responsibility
Appellant's key defense concepts are impairment of behavioral control and loss of self-control. These have been considered by this court most fully in discussion of the insanity defense, and the philosophy of those opinions is invoked, although appellant disclaims the insanity defense as such. In our 1962 en banc McDonald opinion we required as an essential ingredient of the insanity defense evidence that the crime was the product of a "mental disease or defect" — defined as an "abnormal condition of the mind which substantially affects mental or emotional processes and substantially impairs behavior controls." In our 1972 en banc opinion in Brawner, we adopted the test of the ALI's Model Penal Code and required, for exculpation from responsibility for criminal conduct on ground of insanity, evidence from the defendant that as a result of "mental disease or defect," as defined in McDonald, he lacked at the time of his conduct "substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law."
Appellant's presentation rests, in essence, on the premise that the "mental disease or defect" requirement of McDonald and Brawner is superfluous. He discerns a broad principle that excuses from criminal responsibility when conduct results from a condition that impairs behavior control. Appellant's submission was made prior to Brawner but presumably would be modified so that the statement (Brief at 80) that it is not contended that appellant's controls were totally destroyed would be refined with a claim that there was a lack of substantial capacity to conform conduct to the law prohibiting possession. The broad assertion is that in general the mens rea element of criminal responsi bility requires freedom of will, which is negatived by an impairment of behavioral control and loss of self-control.
If drug dependence really negatived mens rea, it would be a defense not only to the offense of possession or purchase of prohibited drugs but to other actions taken under the compulsion of the need to obtain the drug. If there is an impairment and lack of capacity to alter conduct, there is no way in which the line can be drawn in mens rea terms so as to exclude the very large percentage of addicts who must support their habit by engaging in retail sales, or, indeed, committing other crimes in order to satisfy their compulsion for drugs.
Under common law doctrine the courts did recognize defenses as applicable to some but not all offenses. Thus, the defense of duress was not applicable to murder, and originally not applicable to any capital crime. But these are not defenses of lack of the "free will" or mens rea that is an ethical and moral requisite of criminality, but are affirmative defenses of justification and excuse that are based on policy assessment of the needs and limits of social control, a policy appraisal that has been resolved by the legislature for the heroin offenses.
Appellant's surface logic loses luster with analysis. It does not follow that because one condition (mental disease) yields an exculpatory defense if it results in impairment of and lack of behavioral controls the same result follows when some other condition impairs behavior controls.
The criminal law expresses the requirements of personal and official discipline needed to protect society. By long tradition of the penal law, an actor's behavior is "involuntary" and there is no criminal responsibility, when he is overwhelmed by force, as when his arm is physically moved by someone else. By long tradition, too, the criminal law reaches only acts that are not only voluntary but also accompanied by a mental element, a "mens rea" (Law latin for guilty mind). Although some modern statutes impose strict liability, statutes defining criminal offenses are generally construed to require a mens rea, what Justice Jackson aptly referred to as the "requisite but elusive mental element" of crime. Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 252, 72 S.Ct. 240, 96 L.Ed. 288 (1952). However, this mental state may be supplied by proof of knowledge, or even by an objective standard of negligence not dependent on subjective knowledge of the actor. The elements that our basic jurisprudence requires for criminal responsibility — a voluntary act, and a mental state — are plainly fulfilled by an offense of knowing possession of a prohibited article.
The legal conception of criminal capacity cannot be limited to those of unusual endowment or even average pow ers. A few may be recognized as so far from normal as to be entirely beyond the reach of criminal justice, but in general the criminal law is a means of social control that must be potentially capable of reaching the vast bulk of the population. Criminal responsibility is a concept that not only extends to the bulk of those below the median line of responsibility, but specifically extends to those who have a realistic problem of substantial impairment and lack of capacity due, say, to weakness of intellect that establishes susceptibility to suggestion; or to a loss of control of the mind as a result of passion, whether the passion is of an amorous nature or the result of hate, prejudice or vengeance; or to a depravity that blocks out conscience as an influence on conduct.
The criminal law cannot "vary legal norms with the individual's capacity to meet the standards they prescribe, absent a disability that is both gross and verifiable, such as the mental disease or defect that may establish irresponsibility. The most that it is feasible to do with lesser disabilities is to accord them proper weight in sentencing."
Only in limited areas have the courts recognized a defense to criminal responsibility, on the basis that a described condition establishes a psychic incapacity negativing free will in the broader sense. These are areas where the courts have been able to respond to a deep call on elemental justice, and to discern a demarcation of doctrine that keeps the defense within verifiable bounds that do not tear the fabric of the criminal law as an instrument of social control.
Duress
These principles of social control are illuminated by the doctrines defining the defense of duress. While the defense of duress is available to one compelled against his will to perpetrate a crime, with the exception of homicide, the defense is "subject to certain important restrictions and limitations, but in general is a modifying circumstance rather than a limitation of criminal capacity."
The defense of duress does not betoken a broad principle of lack of self-control as a defense to criminal responsibility. While the ALI has accepted the less strict view, voiced in some cases, of lesser threats than those embraced in the original doctrine requiring apprehension of death or great bodily harm, there is a continuing limitation of the defense to one who shows coercion by the use of, or a threat to use, unlawful force against his person.
The limited defense of duress is thus inapplicable to a purely internal psychic incapacity. Indeed, it is also excluded if the actor recklessly or consciously placed himself in a situation where it was probable he would be subjected to external duress, a limitation considered ap propriate "in view of the exceptional nature of the defense."
Necessity defense
There is a common law defense of necessity — sometimes called "duress of circumstances" — available for conditions not involving an external threat of force. Supported by Biblical citation, this legal doctrine is more discussed than litigated, and it provides a justification that is limited to the person who commits an offense in order to avoid a greater evil.
The few cases on the doctrine tend to involve violations undertaken for the greater good (or lesser evil) of safety — as in the case of the master held not to violate an embargo law when he takes port in a storm for the safety of vessel and those on board. The doctrine of necessity does not support appellant's ease; on the contrary, its limitation to avoidance of a "greater evil," illustrates that in common law doctrines the courts have proceeded in support of policy choices by staking out limited manageable defenses, not an all-embracing theory of psychic incapacity.
Crucial differences between mental disease defense and proposed drug dependence defenses
Our past decisions have considered the "no control" defenses of drug ad-diets in the context of the insanity defense. This is in accord with the approach of other circuits, e. g., United States v. Freeman, 357 F.2d 606 (2d Cir. 1966). Appellant disclaims any direct reliance on the insanity defense. He agrees with our rulings that heroin dependence may have probative value, along with other evidence of mental disease, but is not by itself evidence of "mentab disease or defect" sufficient to raise the insanity issue, unless so protracted and extensive as to result in unusual deterioration of controls.
Our opinion in Brawner declined to accept the suggestion that it "announce" a standard exculpating anyone whose capacity for control is insubstantial, for whatever cause or reason, and said, disclaiming an "all-embracing unified field theory," that we would discern the appropriate rule "as the cases arise in regard to other conditions".
In our view, the rule for drug addiction should not be modeled on the rule for mental disease because of crucial distinctions between conditions. The subject of mental disease, though subject to some indeterminacy, and difficulty of diagnosis when extended to volitional impairment as well as cognitive incapacity, has long been the subject of systematic study, and in that framework it is considered manageable to ask psychiatrists to address the distinction, all-important and crucial to the law, between incapacity and indisposition, between those who can't and those who won't, between the impulse irresistible and the impulse not resisted. These are matters as to which the court has accepted the analysis of medicine, medical conditions and symptoms, and on the premise that they can be considered on a verifiable basis, and with reasonable dispatch, the courts have recognized a defense even in conditions not as obvious and verifiable as those covered in the older and limited test of capacity to know right from wrong.
As to the subject of drug dependence and psychic incapacity to refrain from narcotics, even the 1970 Study Draft of the Staff of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws, which favors on balance a drug dependence defense to the crime of possession, for incapacity to refrain from use, candidly recognizes the problems involved. One is "the paradox of jail for the least dangerous possessors (non-addict experimenters and the like) while addicts go free." More important, for present purposes, is the Staff's caution first, that even physical symptoms might "be successfully feigned," and, more broadly, that there is considerable difficulty of verification of the claim of a drug user that he is unable to refrain from use. The Staff Report states:
Perhaps the most significant problem with respect to the proposed defense is that substantial incapacity to refrain from use of dangerous or abusable drugs is not easy to verify. Difficulty of verification, while related to the possibility of feigning the defense, is a broader problem.
According to Dr. Jurgensen such a defense for opiate use would present several problems. A judgment that the defendant lacked substantial capacity to refrain from use of opiates at the time of his possession is a more difficult judgment than a judgment whether the defendant who has assaulted or killed another lacked substantial capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law, because why a person used an opiate at a particular time is not as easily explained by his life history and personality dynamics as why he assaulted or killed another person. Even a person with great clinical experience with addicts could only make an intelligent guess as to the extent that the capacity to refrain from use was impaired at the time of the use or possession in question; persons with less experience could not guess as accurately.
For clinical purposes, the guesswork inherent in "clinical intuition" may be tolerated as part of the experimental approach to whether a disease exists, in what degree, and which mode of treatment should be tried first. But different criteria apply to determination of criminal responsibility. The Staff concludes that while there are "basic arguments for exempting from punishment for his use the dependent drug user who lacks substantial capacity to refrain from drug use," there are significant difficulties, and there is need for further inquiry:
In order to exempt such a person from liability it is also necessary that his condition not be unduly difficult to verify or define, and that this is so is not entirely clear. Hence, the value of the defense may be illuminated by additional opinions from the National Institute of Mental Health.
The difficulty of the verification problem of lack of capacity to refrain from use is sharpened on taking into account that the issue comprehends the addict's failure to participate in treatment programs. This raises problems of the addict's personal knowledge, disposition, motivation, as well as extent of community programs, that may usefully be assessed by someone considering what program to try now or next, but would irretrievably tangle a trial.
The feature that narcotic addiction is not a stable condition undercuts any approach patterned on the mental disease, where there is a reasonable projection that subsequent analysis of particular incidents over time may delineate an ascertainable condition. It is unrealistic to expect the addict himself to supply accurate information on the nature and extent of addiction at the time of the offense, particularly as to "psychic dependence."
The difficulty is sharpened by the appreciable number of narcotic "addicts" who do abandon their habits permanently, and much larger number who reflect their capacity to refrain by ceasing use for varying periods of time. The reasons are not clear but the phenomenon is indisputable. It is noted in the Staff Report, and reported by specialists voicing different approaches to addiction problems.
There is need for reasonable verifiability as a condition to opening a defense to criminal responsibility. The criminal law cannot gear its standards to the individual's capacity "absent a disability that is both gross and verifiable, such as the mental disease or defect that may establish irresponsibility."
That criminal defenses from somatic conditions must hinge on a verifiable predicate has been noted by criminal law specialists most ready to reexamine old dogmas and was pointed out in Brawner as a requisite for exculpation. Not dissimilar considerations under gird the maxim, ignorance of the law is no excuse, which contradicts salient principles underlying mens rea, yet rejects the defense claim in the interest of society. "The plea would be universally made, and would lead to interminable questions incapable of solution." The needs of society require overriding the subjective good faith of the individual as a legal defense, remitting his position to mitigation of punishment and executive clemency.
Reliability and validity of a legal defense require that it can be tested by criteria external to the actions which it is invoked to excuse. And so the Model Penal Code's caveat paragraph rejects an insanity defense based on an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise anti-social conduct. This approach was followed in Brawner, The defense of drug dependence to a charge of drug use cannot clear the hurdle of circularity.
Problems of verifiability interrelate with dangers of widespread assertion. This is particularly significant since it is proposed that the defense be made available not only to persons who satisfy the World Health Organization definition of addiction, which requires a physical dependence, note 10 supra, and who make a claim of action under the compulsion of withdrawal stress, but also to persons who claim mere "psychic" dependence. Such a defense of drug dependence would seem likely for most persons having possession or making purchases of narcotic drugs, in contrast with mental disease, which cannot be established for more than a small percentage of the cases affected. A defense put forward nominally for the addict without capacity to refrain would naturally extend to all habitual drug users, given the realities of the administration of justice, limited time and resources available for prosecution and trial, and the extreme difficulty of any effort to draw distinctions between addicts.
The difficulty of verifiability of "loss of control" was side-stepped by Congress in its civil commitment statutes, which apply to one who is either "so far addicted . . . as to have lost the power of self control with reference to his addiction" or "who uses any habit-forming drug so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare". This compound concept was used in the 1953 definition of "drug user," see 24 D.C.Code § 602(a) and the 1966 definition of "addict" in Titles I, II and III of NARA, 28 U.S.C. § 2901(a), 18 U.S.C. § 4251(a), 42 U.S.C. § 3411(a) (1970).
Furthermore, Title I of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 contains, in § 2, a provision for Surgeon General custody not only of an "addict" but also of a "drug dependent person," 42 U.S.C. § 201 (1970), defined as:
a person who is using a controlled substance . . . and who is in a state of psychic or physical dependence, or both, arising from the use of that substance on a continuous basis. Drug dependence is characterized by behavioral and other responses which include a strong compulsion to take the substance on a continuous basis in order to experience its psychic effects or to avoid the discomfort caused by its absence.
The 1970 law establishes the Surgeon General's authority to treat drug dependent persons on voluntary petition, transfer of a prisoner, or in accordance with a Federal court probation order specifying treatment as a condition of probation. 42 U.S.C. § 257-259 (1970).
Such provision for treatment for drug dependent persons (under "strong compulsion") on probation reinforces the lack of contemplation that the same condition was covered through some implied osmosis as a criminal defense.
C. The Need for Judicial Restraint in a Context of Balanced Legislative Commitment to the Narcotic Addiction Problem
Restraint as part of judicial policy role
Our analysis has revealed that there is no broad common law principle of exculpation on ground of lack of control, but rather a series of particular defenses staked out in manageable areas, with the call for justice to the individual confined to ascertainable and verifiable conditions, and limited by the interest of society in control of conduct.
Unless compelled by constitutional considerations, an injection by the courts of a new criminal "drug dependence" defense, on a subject of extraordinary difficulty, would be singularly inappropriate, at the present juncture.
We are now rounding out a decade when the turn-of-the-screw approach of the 1950's has been succeeded by a wide-ranging and flexible attention to the problem by the legislature. The Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act of 1972 marks continuing recognition that law enforcement must be integrated with education, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programs, reflecting "a strong consensus that prevention and treatment and law enforcement are in fact interrelated and can have enhancing as well as counter-productive effects on one another."
Congress has seen the need for flexibility, experiment, coordination of programs, devotion of resources. All the experts are in agreement concerning the extraordinary complexity of the problems, the changes over the years in patterns of addiction, the diversity in kind of narcotic addicts, reasons for addiction and possible motivations and methods for diversion and rehabilitation, and above all the limitations on our knowledge, and the need for research.
Court cannot extirpate criminal process as lacking a role in treatment of addicts
We are not to be taken as encouraging prosecution of drug addicts on the basis of mere possession. But the present state of learning and public opinion does not allow us to foreclose recourse to the criminal process as part of the overall approach of government to this tangled problem, or to anticipate legislative consideration of the pro's and con's of a drug dependence defense to possession.
When Senator Dodd called in 1962 for recognition that "drug addiction is essentially a medical problem, a psychiatric problem" his proposal was to restore probation and parole. With probation, the criminal process may provide, in the words of Judge Belson, "a potent and beneficial intervention in the life of the addict . Persons on probation from offenses such as charged here [possession of heroin and narcotic paraphernalia, D.C.Code § 33-402, 22-3601] are frequently required to participate in drug abuse programs; and their participation may, in the case of some individuals, be strongly encouraged by the direct threat of a jail term which would ensue if they should fail to make reasonable efforts to cooperate with the program." Whether addicts respond to such governmental intervention presumably depends upon their particular personalities and disorders and their attitudes toward authority.
Certainly it cannot be said that the technical evidence eliminates any possible role for detention and compulsion. The Report of the Ad Hoc Panel on Drug Abuse, the working paper of the 1962 White House Conference, indicates that underlying personality inadequacy persists even after drug abuse is terminated, and unless the individual is provided with support manifests itself as soon as he encounters stress. "When, however, firm supervision of the discharged addict is available, particularly under civil or criminal parole arrangement, an encouraging number are able to stay off drugs and maintain themselves by honest employment for an appreciable period of time. These programs depend upon the substitution of external control, exercised jointly by correctional officers, medical personnel, and social workers, for the inner control which appears'to be lacking in the addict personality."
Reference may also be made to the literature since 1966 on studies, supported by a research award of the National Institute of Mental Health, of two long-term follow-ups of patients, one group from Kentucky, one group from New York, who were admitted to the United States Public Health Hospital at Lexington. The study by Dr. G. E. Vaillant, of Harvard Medical School, has been identified as a "break-through." The study finds relative ineffectiveness securing abstinence from either voluntary treatment along the medical model, or punishment alone, but finds that "external coercion of some kind appears a critical variable in facilitating abstinence" and produces significantly greater success rates when punishment is combined with a follow-up parole providing close and prolonged community supervision, and a work program to help achieve independence, in a backdrop of social prohibition and legal sanction against narcotic drug abuse.
The study posits that the urban addict typically lacked integrated supervision in childhood and in effect seeks control, and that the parole supervision meets the addict's need for a powerful incentive to work, as a substitute for the satisfaction of addiction, and an unescapable nonparental ally to back up his impulse control, and to care when he is honest and independent.
It is not our province to assess the value of a system of probation reinforced by jail sanctions. That there is some evidence to support its vitality, at least for some addicts, establishes that prohibition on legal grounds is not warranted as the necessary product of the consensus of medical opinion. If it is, indeed, one of three main approaches that have value — along with methadone-maintenance, and therapeutic communities — and there is need for experiment and study, judicial interdiction is not warranted.
There has been increasing recourse to —and experience and data developing about — treatment programs with the substitute and blocking drugs, e. g., methadone (itself an "opiate") and cyclozocine (an "antagonist"). At present, maintenance programs are being stressed — though not exclusively. Attention must also be focused on effective community supervision and follow-up, to secure supporting life styles, including e. g., work performance conditions, that motivate for both treatment and abstinence.
There are expert voices describing compulsory supervision in the form of probation and parole as an important and effective weapon in society's arsenal against narcotic addiction. And students of the problem most hostile to compulsion, even through civil commitment, acknowledge that such supervision has a substantial effect in inducing abstinence. The approach of compulsory supervision through probation cannot rightly be excluded.
Significance of conviction prior to probation supervision or detention
The knowledge available concerning narcotic addiction is not such as to impel the courts to intervene, on grounds of justice, to require that probationary supervision be met by a civil determination and civil compulsory commitment, and to forbid its being preceded by a "conviction", or accompanied by a threat of prison in ease of violation.
1. When the 1963 Prettyman Commission recommended a federal civil commitment statute to "provide an alternative method of handling the federally convicted offender," it selected the model of conviction first (Califormia plan), as preferable to deferral of prose cution (New York plan), in avoiding serious problems of trial if needed. While NARA as enacted provided for both alternatives, Congress required that certain addicts — engaged in sales solely to secure narcotics for their personal use — be committed only under Title II after conviction. And the problem identified by the Prettyman Commission has contributed to the actual experience of under-utilization of Title I of NARA, with prosecutors preferring the Title II approach lest controls be undermined.
Given the present state of available knowledge, and given the need for compulsion to reenforce cooperation in rehabilitation treatment, a court cannot gainsay the permissibility of a policy choice by the legislature that there be a conviction before a treatment is ordered. This establishes, at a minimum, a clear signal to the addict of prompt and effecfive detention in the event of non-cooperation, whether on a sentence already passed, or by the celerity with which a sentence previously deferred may be imposed, following a hearing by the court, without the delay and other problems attendant on trial before a jury of the underlying offense.
A recent report notes that the D.C. Narcotics Treatment Agency's program of Outpatient Abstinence, recorded a low performance rate, with only 15% remaining in it for six months, whereas the same NTA programs showed significantly better results when used for abstinence patients referred to NTA by the Department of Corrections. The analysis comments: "Programs connected with the criminal-justice system usually have the spur of return to jail if the patient fails, of course." What more need be said ?
110. J. Y. DeLong, Treatment and Rehabilitation, in Dealing With Drug Abuse 198 (Staff Paper No. 3, Drug Abuse Survey Project of Ford Foundation, 1972).
2. Furthermore, community supervision rests, to a considerable extent, in the hands of the police. The legislature might reasonably conclude that, in our society as it stands, the police are more likely to be vigilant in requiring compliance with a parole officer who is exacting payment of a "debt to society" owed by a convicted man, than with a doctor or social worker, and, further, that more genuine help to the addict will be obtained through supervision from probation and parole officers, because they are likely to be more "hard-nosed" and demanding, requiring employment, without accepting the evasions and objections, of unsuitability or discomfort, that may be persuasively presented to treatment aides by a person avowedly only "sick."
3. The foregoing only says there may be a place for probation after conviction. It does not deny the considerable value of pre-trial diversion, or of other legislative models that avoid conviction, or permit expungement of conviction following successful treatment. Such expungement would help avoid any possibility that the social stigma attached to ex-convicts might impede the rehabilitation of drug addicts when they return to the community. A similar result can be accomplished for age-eligible misdemeanants by disposition under the Federal Youth Corrections Act, which provides for probation as well as treatment in confinement, and which has a provision for expungement of conviction.
Section 404 of the 1970 law, 21 U.S.C. § 844 (1970), goes further and provides for expungement as to the misdemeanor of possession, without any "adjudication" of .guilt, notwithstanding a verdict or plea of guilty, in the case of a first narcotics offense by a person under 21 who complies with the conditions of a probation order.
4.There are difficult problems relating to responsibility and stigma. The issue of responsibility requires consideration not merely in terms of the abstraction of blameworthiness, but also from the standpoint of furtherance of rehabilitation. The Government's brief presents, in an appendix, a technical paper which reports on a questionnaire put to recovered addicts, that 76% of them agreed that motivation for cure would be removed if it was ruled that heroin addicts were not responsible for their actions at material times, and 69% further said they were always responsible for their actions at material times. Appellant takes issues with the writer's methodology and conclusions. We cannot, on appeal, resolve such matters so as to override a legislative contemplation of conviction.
The role of responsibility is noted in the WACADA amicus brief, that rehabilitation depends on an acknowledgment of responsibility by the addict. Deeming it an unfortunate paradox that it must negative responsibility in order to obtain non-punitive treatment — and nowhere does amicus address itself to suspension under probation — amicus says that "conviction" of crime is contra-indicated because it is what sociologists call a "degradation" ceremony. Its use in the criminal process is said to intensify the personality configuration of the long-term heroin addict (which involves significant qualities of dependency, irresponsibility, insecurity and low self-esteem) and in effect reinforce the dynamic of addiction.
The amicus brief is forthright in recognizing the need for "responsibility," and the problem it presents to a plea denying responsibility. Its "degradation ceremony" contention is interesting, but we are not cited to any evidence or study. The references we have cited seem to undercut any assumption that probation techniques that have proved successful are impaired by the existence of a prior conviction or even short confinement.
Most significant is the dilemma that the "degradation" problem, to the extent that it exists, would seem most applicable to the relatively young, whereas the testimony relied on by appellant's counsel to support the defense of psychic incapacity highlights the special problems of the "old" addict. One may be at least skeptical whether confirmed addicts — beset with self-hate, often depressed and perhaps even suicidal — will be affected by a possession conviction as an even marginal increment of despair. That they are more likely to be attentive to the realities of controls than such nuances, appears from the reactions of addicts to the California compulsory civil commitment program: Those convicted of a felony narcotics violation (about 75%) feel they are better off in a civil commitment program — with lesser potential detention time; those committed after a misdemeanor conviction would rather be in prison, with less detention time.
It may be that the invocation of the criminal process has the plus value of telling the addict: "You are responsible for what you have done and are doing." There is a dignity in holding him responsible. And it may be ego-building, too, to offer a treatment as a choice (on probation) rather than a compulsory mandate of commitment. That it is likely to be preferred to prison does not negative the ego mechanism of choice.
Finally, there is serious question whether stigma is avoidable. Justice Black and Harlan concluded that compulsory commitment would "carry with it a social stigma little different in practice from that associated with" the label of a "crime." And it is notable that the 1970 Congressional scheme constituting the crime of possession as a misdemean- or avoids the collateral consequence that the offender will suffer the loss of voting rights.
Deterrence
Finally, we cannot entirely overlook the feature of deterrence. Narcotic addiction is not as prevalent today as in 1900. A noted advocate of humane treatment for addicts recognizes (a) that "Federal and State laws have been exceedingly effective in preventing the addiction of normal cases, and the coercive features of narcotics laws have forced the cure of the more hopeful of the curable cases"; and (b) that a "well-defined fear of the law" is one reason why addicts try a cure. Deterrence of addicts may be most effective for those who can best visualize options — like doctors and para-medical personnel who become medical addicts — but it is not limited to them. It would not be unreasonable to consider that a drug dependence defense would operate to undercut any prohibition of possession, and that this must be balanced against the evidence that a deterrent effect is wrought by the possibility of arrest followed by penalty.
The deterrent consideration is not undone by noting the addicts who were not deterred, for they must be weighed against the invisible experimenters or dabblers, who were deterred from starting or continuing. It is not decisive that the criminal law did not deter addicts in the first instance, when it could not offset the contagion of the peer-group — and most studies place the beginning of heavy use between the ages of 17 and 19, addicts often testifying that they got started through the offer, and the contagious enthusiasm, of a friend who tried it and liked it. The fact that use was not deterred when the criminal law was abstract and remote, at least in comparison with peer-group pressures, does not mean it will not be deterred when the criminal law is made concrete with arrests, even the arrests of others. The deterrence is intensified when the criminal sanction is made concrete with a sentence that is suspended only on condition of treatment.
In view of the phenomenon of remission and self-abstinence, we must take into account that the prospect of criminal punishment may help an individual decide that now is the time to remove himself from involvement with narcotics, and to undertake serious rehabilitative efforts.
The deterrent aspects of prohibition of possession are noted even by those favoring a medical model, but admit that the law reducing possession to a misdemeanor has the redeeming aspects of precluding extremely severe prison sentences for non-traffickers, making it likely that many will be deemed appropriate for probation rather than detention, while still discouraging those who are deterred by criminal sanctions from experimenting into a habit, and even encouraging some addicts to give up the habit.
Need for judicial role of probation supervision, and doctrinal restraint, pending on-going legislative reappraisal of narcotic addiction problems
Our approach is consonant with the March 1972 report of the American Bar Association Special Committee on Crime Prevention and Control.
The Committee lamented the under-utilization of programs for pre-trial diversion of drug dependent defendants, and recommended that procedures be developed within the criminal justice system so that addicts, accused or convicted of possession of narcotics or of street crimes for support of their habit, would be diverted from the criminal justice system and be referred to treatment.
The subject of pre-trial diversion is one of enormous importance in the administration of justice, both in avoiding needless clogging of the courts for the cases that really identify a social and medical problem rather than a legal problem, and for the more effective protection of society through rehabilitation of the individuals involved in those cases. However, pre-trial diversion is not a sound justification for a broad dependence defense to possession charges, which may not only involve the courts in trial tangles, but would be most applicable to the older addicts, rather than the younger ones most appropriate for diversion. Pretrial diversion is a matter that requires exercise of prosecutorial discretion, and it may fairly be contemplated that such discretion will be exercised for non-trafficking addicts who, the Government says, are not the real target of the criminal laws.
The Committee's conclusion that narcotics addiction should be transferred out of the courts "to non-judicial entities, such as detoxification centers, narcotics treatment centers and social service agencies" (at 100) is a broad legislative proposal. It projects for the future a limited role for the criminal justice system.
Meanwhile, however, the Report comments with approval (at 42) that the 1970 act "contains some substantial and long-awaited reforms," including provision for "offenders on probation subject to conditions of medical treatment."
The efforts of the American Bar Association's Committee, conjoined with negotiations with the United States Attorney and court officials, have le'd to a pre-trial diversion program in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for first offenders charged with certain non-violent misdemeanors. The courts rightly encourage and sponsor such programs. However, the courts will soundly be governed by a judicial restraint that keeps in phase with the pace of legislative advances. Injection of a judicial doctrine of psychological dependence of heroin addicts would be heavy-handed and counter-productive at least in the present state of knowledge, and the reality of critical problems of reliability. Judicial efforts at this time are more soundly oriented to improvement of disposition within the contours of the system of criminal justice rather than to outright negation of criminal responsibility for addicts. This is a time when many programs have begun and need assessment. The legislature and executive contemplate an integrated approach, wherein law enforcement aspects would be coordinated with prevention, rehabilitation, research and other programs. The literature suggests that the criminal justice system may have a useful role in this integrated approach, in reinforcing treatment by those charged with the possession misdemeanor, and put under pre-trial diversion, and by those convicted of possession and put under probation supervision. This court is in no position at this time to reject or imperil that potential. Sound judgment calls for the courts to reinforce the legislature's rehabilitation efforts, using the probation flexibility, but to avoid at this juncture injection of new doctrine in an area still in evolution, with ongoing reappraisal of the narcotic addict problem under way by the legislature, and indeed all concerned.
«• *
On March 22, 1973 — after this opinion and the others were in page proof — the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse released its Second Report: "Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective." It concludes (at 273):
The Commission recommends that the unauthorized possession of any controlled substance except marihuana for personal use remain a prohibited act. The Commission further recommends that as a matter of statutory or enforcement policy, assertion of control over the consumer should not be tied to concepts of criminal accountability but rather to concepts of assistance appropriate in the individual ease. The primary purpose of enforcement of the possession laws should be the detection and selection of those persons who would benefit by treatment or prevention services.
Specifically as to the role of the legal system and the issue of drug-dependent persons, the Commission concludes as follows (at 274):
For those drug-dependent persons who are apprehended for consumption-related offenses, including possession, one of the following dispositions is in our view constitutionally required and should be mandatory:
(a) diversion to a treatment program or
(b) diversion to a treatment program after conviction but before entry of judgment by the court.
Failure by an individual to comply with the conditions of treatment would result in his return to the court for prosecution or sentencing. In that event, he should be subject to punishment by up to one year imprisonment, a fine of up to $500 or both.
At this time and in this space it is not feasible to review the Commission's discussion in depth, much less to integrate it into the analysis in this opinion. It suffices to observe generally that the Commission's commentary is in large part, if not entirely, congruent with the analysis in this opinion. An index of that congruence is the Commission's observation (at 275):
The Commission has proposed retention of the possession offense because of its symbolic importance, its practical though limited deterrent value, its legitimate role as a mechanism for channelling drug dependent persons into treatment and for identifying others whose drug use may be symptomatic of serious emotional distress.
We cannot know the ultimate fate of this or any other of the Commission's recommendations. But this Second Report, which covers drugs like heroin and cocaine, is part of the direction of ongoing reconsideration by the legislature, here by an expert commission established by statute, which is a key assumption of our opinion.
D. Constitutional Considerations
In Robinson v. California, supra, the Supreme Court held that a California statute making mere addiction a crime inflicted "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court said, however, that "A state might impose criminal sanctions, for example, against the unauthorized manufacture, prescription, sale, purchase, or possession of narcotics within its borders. . " The Court emphasized, at 665-666, 82 S.Ct. 1417, that, in the case before it, the jury had been instructed that they could convict even though the defendant • had never used narcotics within the State, and overturned the sentence as one based on an addict's status standing alone, for the reason that this would be tantamount to punishing a disease, and indeed "an illness which may be contracted innocently or involuntarily," 370 U.S. at 667, 82 S.Ct. at 1420, and stated:
We hold that a state law which imprisons a person thus afflicted as a criminal, even though he has never touched any narcotic drug within the State or been guilty of any irregular behavior there, inflicts a cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Even one day in prison would be a cruel and unusual punishment for the 'crime' of having a common cold.
In Powell v. Texas, supra, the Court upheld a statute making public drunkenness a crime. Mr. Justice Marshall announced the judgment, in an opinion concurred in by Chief Justice Warren and Justices Black and Harlan. He stated that the court could not assert categorically that the use of the criminal process as a means of dealing with public aspects of problem drinking lacked rationality. He referred to the uncertainty as to the nature, cause, identity and treatment of the disease of alcoholism. Faced with the reality that there is no known effective method of treatment, and in any event in view of the enormous requirements of facilities and manpower for the implementation of a rehabilitation program "it is difficult to say in the present context that the criminal process is utterly lacking in social value." 392 U.S. at 530, 88 S.Ct. at 2153. Moreover, the possibility of deterrence significance cannot be nullified.
As to the Eighth Amendment, the Court distinguished Robinson on the ground that there was no punishment of Powell for a mere status, but for the actus reus — being in public while drunk on a particular occasion. The Court was unable to conclude from the record and "the current state of medical knowledge, that chronic alcoholics . . . suffer from such an irresistible compulsion to drink and to get drunk in public that they are utterly unable to control their performance of either or both of these acts . . . ." at 535, 88 S.Ct. at 2155. And the Court declined to articulate a general constitutional doctrine of mens rea, or to define "some sort of insanity test in constitutional terms and freeze the developing productive dialogue between law and psychiatry into a rigid constitutional mold. It is simply not yet the time to write into the Constitution formulas cast in terms whose meaning, let alone relevance, is not yet clear either to doctors or to lawyers." at 536, 88 S.Ct. at 2156.
If this had been the opinion of a majority, no shred of a constitutional problem would confront us. The criminal law recognizes that a knowing possession is an act, see text at note 62 supra. The medical authorities are uncertain as to the causes of narcotic addiction, and even hypotheses as to the propensity to addition are confronted by the ever-changing nature of the addict population. Most importantly, there is no generally accepted cure. The ABA Committee Report, note 128 supra, places main hope on management programs through use of narcotics — methadone-maintenance as a replacement addiction — to cabin the anti-social consequences of heroin addiction. But the Report recognizes (at 57) that methadone maintenance might be effective in the range of 25-50% of addicts, and that "far smaller percentages" can be reached by the other treatment programs discussed— abstinence and detoxification, including civil commitment programs with counseling and psychiatric input; therapeutic communities (Synanon); and antagonists.
The overall context of the constitutional problem must also take into account (a) the acceptance of a penal sanction to enforce compulsory civil commitment for narcotic addicts, notwithstanding that at present success rates are at best modest; and (b) the material already developed concerning the possible value of the penal sanction —when used with probation conditioned on treatment. In this setting, with probation-with-treatment available to the sentencing authority, Justice Marshall's opinion supports a penal sanction for knowing possession of narcotics by addicts.
We turn to the opinion of Justice White, the fifth member of the Powell court. We have particularly pondered his statement that Robinson's incapacity to punish addiction (a disease) necessarily means an incapacity to punish an addict for possession or use of the narcotics, which is the same as punishing for addiction "under a different name." See 392 U.S. at 548, 88 S.Ct. 2145. In Watson, this court reflected, without resolution, on the implication of that position.
As already noted, Robinson said expressly that the state could punish purchase or possession of a narcotic drug. The Court was doubtless aware that just such a possession provision is part of the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act in effeet in most states. Justices Warren and Black subscribed not only to Robinson but also to the opinion affirming Powell's conviction as based on an actus reus.
Justice White's statement must be read in the framework not only of his votes to uphold the convictions of both Robinson and Powell, but of his statement that punishment for an offense can be related to the exercise of will at some previous time — at least if the willed acts were not "remote in time." This indicates that .punishment for the offense of possession may be justified constitutionally, notwithstanding a claim of present lack of control capacity, by reference to some not-too-remote choice of the addict to eschew rehabilitation treatment available. This is significantly different from the standard approach of e. g., the insanity defense, as exemplified by the ALI rule, which focuses on lack of capacity at the time of the offense, to control the conduct.
Also revealing of Justice White's approach is his concluding passage, 392 U.S. at 553-554, 88 S.Ct. 2145, that a defense is not established by the mere existence of compulsion "to some degree," where the defendant has not made a showing that he was "unable" to avoid the condition made criminal. There is a plain implication that defendant would have the burden of proof.
Taking Justice White's opinion and votes as a whole, we conclude that his approach does not undercut Justice Marshall's opinion on the constitutional permissibility of holding even narcotic addicts for the intentional action of possession, without recognition of a new defense of psychological dependence that poses difficult problems of verifiability and widespread use. To the extent that those contending for a dependence defense are ready to accept convictions under state statutes, without provision for such a defense, their submission plainly lacks constitutional requirement, even though it may be permeated with constitutional discussion.
Constitutional doctrine is concerned with general fairness. The pertinent context combines (a) increasing availability of treatment choices in the community, including "treatment" probation, and (b) awareness of the problems attendant on a drug dependence defense if required (difficulty of verification of psychic incapacity as distinguished from unwillingness to undertake available treatment, difficulty of identifying differences in types of addicts, difficulty of limiting the defense to the few rather than the many, etc.). In this combined context, constitutional fairness does not mean a compulsion to probe the addict's alleged compulsion and determine, e. g., precisely when and on what basis he made a choice for use when not dependent, or ignored the community's program (in the District of Columbia, not only voluntary commitment, but also the NTA's multi-modality programs, including methadone maintenance).
E. Current Resolution of Problems Noted in Watson, and Further Assessment of Pertinent Doctrines of Responsibility and Constitutional Protection
We are aware that in Watson it was indicated that the criminal process might be inapplicable to acts as integrally related to the status of addiction as possession, and that the issue of this defense on the merits might be presented through motions before and during the trial.
These references to the merits were at most tentative, and were intermeshed with non-constitutional questions, that the pertinent legislative history of the earlier statutes might show that Congress never intended to reach "the non-trafficking addict possessor" or "non-trafficking possessors for personal use." Even as to addicts, it is significant that the opinion, which sustained a conviction, focused on the availability of NARA treatment after conviction, as a primary consideration, albeit not a final solvent of the claims on the merits. In a significant passage, the Watson opinion stated that the sentence was being vacated and remanded—
with directions that he [appellant] be regarded on resentencing as eligible for non-criminal disposition under the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act. Amicus itself has represented to us . that this action on our part "would in large measure" obviate appellant's problem.
Watson did not take into account — indeed the court was not advised of — the prospect that subsequent 1970 legislation would make possession a misdemeanor_ and would permit conviction to be followed by treatment even without NARA commitment, through provision for treatment as a condition of probation.
The thought has been put that we should enlarge on common law defenses to reach psychic incapacity from drug addiction. In Brawner we considered a diametrically oriented proposal, that the insanity defense be abolished, with medical overview reserved for disposition not guilt. We noted that this proposal had not only appeared in the journals but been endorsed in comments of reflective judges. We concluded that this turn-about from settled common law doctrines based on mens rea and free will was not for judicial fiat but for the kind of legislative reexamination that could be accomplished by devotion of resources.
Similarly, we think it should be for the legislature to focus on whether to expand the theory of the insanity defense so as to add a defense of psychic incapacity from drug addiction. The difficulties of verifying incapacity are significantly greater than those posed by the insanity defense. And the identification of the defense of drug dependence with concepts of mens rea and free will is undercut by its proposed limitation to simple offenses of possession and use. That this is fiat does not necessarily mean it is unsound policy. However, this is the kind of choice of policies in tension that is appropriately for the legislature, at least when, as here, the legislature is engaged in continuing reappraisal of narcotic addiction, has supported an integrated approach with large funds for research and rehabilitation, and has, significantly, restored probation and permitted conditions of treatment.
The flexibility of probation, and suspended sentence, may serve (a) to reinforce the addict's motivation for rehabilitation, and (b) to protect society, by ensuring against any hiatus between the termination of the criminal process and the institution of civil equivalents. The term "equivalents" is used advisedly; any widespread recourse to compulsory civil commitment must take account of voices increasingly concerned with the threat to liberty portended by actual confinement. The problems are underscored by civil commitment statutes, like the D.C. law, that provide no maximum detention, such as inheres in a sentence, and authorize detention for the duration of "treatment." Nor can the problems of compulsory commitment, aptly termed a hybrid detention, be finessed in the name of "treatment"; the penal sanction for evading commitment, or elopement, extends in all likelihood, to a failure to cooperate. Moreover, in a field pervaded with doubt, about all that is certain is that it is not yet known, for many if not most addicts, whether, how, or to what extent, successful treatment may be achieved. A whole-hearted commitment to civil commitment must be tempered with awareness that even now this is sometimes "uncivil commitment" and that overhead hovers the anxiety of detention unadorned by meaningful treatment.
The uncertain state of knowledge in this field, and need for flexibility, are underscored by the "unanticipated findings" of a survey in the "ghetto" Bed-ford-Stuyvesant community. The sur vey found that a lower heroin use in their families was reported by respondents with grade school education (one-half the use of those with high school or college education); by respondents with blue collar occupations or incomes below $6,000 annually (significant difference with those employed in white collar occupations or income above $6,000 annually); by respondents from broken homes (slightly less than those in intact families); and by respondents in households headed by females (slightly less than those headed by males). These surprising findings on the profile of the addict caution against any court extension and intrusion into on-going appraisals, based on assumptions that may be undercut by studies and developments. As to the less surprising finding of this LEAA-financed study, that the highest drop-out rate from the methodone maintenance program was among the younger members, this reinforces the need for the availability of strong sanctions that can overcome the inducements of the drug, and motivate users to accept responsibility and the strains of changing a life style.
It is argued that civil commitment provides the protection that society needs in the case of an individual unable to control his possession and use of narcotic drugs. This raises serious questions whether commitment juries will be ready to find such lack of self-control as to warrant involuntary confinement of those not charged with crime; whether our society can realistically be expected to implement a civil statute with the same priorities as a violation of probation, in e. g., unrelenting enforcement of an employment requirement; whether there is a feasible way to handle the person whose extreme hostility means that his inclusion in a treatment program limits capacity for treatment of other addicts. Apart from such questions there remains the problem of slippage, the inescapable problem of the narcotic user who resists confinement in jail on the ground that it has not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he had substantial capacity to conform his past conduct to the law's prohibition of possession, and then resists possible confinement in a hospital by arguing to the jury that it has not been sufficiently proved by the Government that he has "lost the power of self control with reference to his addiction." Since the presence, or lack of control capacity is difficult of verification as of any one time, and is subject to change, this problem of slippage is not inconsiderable.
On the other side of the coin, so far as criminal sanctions are concerned, Congress has recognized the mistakes of the past in over-domination of medical solutions by law-enforcement officials, and has provided for HEW prescription of approved medical techniques. Methadone maintenance has been given increasing recognition, and Congress has expressly permitted methadone treatment under Titles I and II of NARA, in appropriate cases. Experts caution that methadone maintenance has both ultimate limits in the number of addicts who will respond, and intermediate limitations on the rate of transition from experimental to mass programs.
It has been duly noted that there were no criminal sanctions in the 19th century notwithstanding a relatively larger user population of narcotic addicts — soldier addicts; medical addicts; and significantly "drug store addicts," predominantly female, white and middle class, and not confined to a particular geographical region or the cities — and that criminal legislation ensued only with the advent of the "pleasure" or "street" use of narcotic drugs by ethnic minorities in the nation's cities. There are reflective voices who say that the criminal sanctions approach of the more recent past, and prohibition of out-patient medical prescription of narcotics, have combined to provide an impetus to crime that besets the society with dangers worse than the evil, and that the curse of the drug abuse requires riddance from past dogmas and research in, and then acceptance of, a system of medically supervised narcotic maintenance. This is a matter for policy-making that may not be mandated by the courts.
There will be on-going legislative appraisal. The 1970 law provided, § 601, 21 U.S.C. § 801 note, for a non-partisan Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, with members appointed by the President (9) and Congress (4), to conduct a comprehensive study and make recommendations. The Commission's First Report, in March 1972, recommended that the Federal law be revised so as to remove criminal prohibitions against "private" possession of marijuana for personal use. The Commission disclaimed any absolutist philosophy, and explicitly recognized that so-called "private" conduct may be prohibited in furtherance of public health and welfare, but focused on the utility of the legal system, and the need for use of criminal law, in modifying noxious behavior, particularly when the behavior is invisible, private or consensual, and whether primary emphasis must not be put on other agencies of social control. The Commission's rejection for marijuana of the contention that a possession offense is needed to reach traffickers, does not necessarily extend to heroin, marked by differences in consequences to user, type of user population and quantum of "sales." Its Second Report, in 1973, recommended criminal sanctions for possession of heroin. See text supra, at 1194-1195.
The Administration's 1969-1970 presentation sought a Federal offense prohibiting mere possession of controlled drugs as a means of reaching large-scale traffickers, and disclaimed any intent to prosecute mere addicts possessing for personal use, with reliance instead on rehabilitation and civil commitment for abusers and addicts. Congress agreed to make simple possession a crime, but declined the request for high penalties and felony classification.
As to possession of narcotics by addicts for personal use, we take note of the limited impact projected by Congress for the present law — with Congressional contemplation that the Government would withhold criminal prosecution of mere addicts, and that they would be subject to pretrial diversion and the court's broad probation authority. This, together with the provision of an executive-legislative commission for ongoing reappraisal, establish a climate conducive to a judicial restraint that would avoid a constitutional hobbling of legislative flexibility and development.
In Watson, the 1968 opinion of a panel of this court found Eighth Amendment infirmity in the excessiveness of statutory requirement imposing a minimum ten-year term on an addict, without hope of probation or parole, and without regard to the offender's dire need for treatment. When the case was reargued en banc in 1969 and decided in July 1970, the court reversed by invalidating arbitrary limitation of the benefits of Title II of NARA, thus assuring the trial court would have discretion to provide for treatment of the convicted offender.
We have not shelved the concerns underling Watson. Our position is, rather, that the legislature has increasingly addressed itself to like concerns, and has not only permitted for addicts, but made clear its interest in, probation on condition of medical treatment.
Congress fairly contemplated that the trial court in a possession case, involving claim at sentencing that the defendant was a dependent, would consider information concerning the nature of the defendant's drug dependence, before passing sentence, and the possibilities of control under treatment.
At this juncture, we do not think judicial interposition of a drug dependence defense would mark a sound intrusion
into the on-going legislative development of the law.
V. REMAND FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF DISPOSITION
Our conclusion that this case should be remanded for further consideration by the District Court of disposition arises in part from its unusual procedural posture. Under the circumstances of this case, we exercise our jurisdiction of the appeal from the conviction — accompanied as it was by a judgment placing appellant under confinement, for a Title II NARA consideration to guide disposition after sentencing, but remand to permit further consideration of NARA disposition if requested by appellant. Our settled jurisprudence calls on us to apply 28 U.S.C. § 2106 so as to order a remand following a sentence when there is a possibility that there was a failure to give NARA dispositions full consideration. The present ease is considered appropriate for such a remand order, since .prior to the disposition order, by the trial judge, this court appointed counsel to argue the appeal, and he diligently filed his brief on the merits and sought the en banc consideration which we ordered. Counsel for both appellant and the Government have thus focused on conviction vel non, and yet a simple order of affirmance might preclude any further judicial consideration of the NARA issue.
In such consideration on remand, the District Court would be free to take into account all pertinent material. The material available to this court indicates that the failure of the defendant to profit from a prior experience at Danbury is not conclusive. NARA itself makes clear that a prior failure on a Title I commitment does not preclude a Title II commitment. And the fact that a person is found not likely to be rehabilitated under a Danbury program does not negative a successful adjustment through a methadone-maintenance program of the kind administered by D.C.'s Narcotic Treatment Administration. The HEW Department, and the National Institute of Mental Health, have thus far limited NARA's rehabilitation programs, notwithstanding some variations in approach, to "addicts with a high motivation for treatment." While Congress contemplated in 1966 that NARA civil commitment (Titles I and III) would be limited to "selected narcotic addicts" the legislative history also underscores the need for "flexible approaches," embodying on-going medical knowledge, and it would seem that Title II dispositions could be governed by the broad objective of NARA voiced by the Committee as follows:
[T]he bill provides alternatives which provide a needed flexibility in the law. The practical effect of the implementation of the law provided for in the bill, is that strict punishment can be meted out where required to the hardened criminal, while justice can be tempered with judgment and fairness in those cases where it is to the best interest of society and the individual that such a course be followed.
There is widespread conviction that many addicts who cannot be initially motivated for the rehabilitation programs now used by the Surgeon General can be successfully rescued from criminality, and oriented toward work performance and relatively normal life as a "socially useful citizen, happy in himself and in society," through a methadone-maintenance program coupled with effective counseling. Indeed this view seems to have been taken in the NARA Staff Evaluation Report in September 1969 to a trial judge in the then Court of General Session, that "Raymond Moore is an addict who is not likely to be rehabilitated through a treatment program in this Institution at this time. He might possibly be considered a suitable prospect for a Methadone Program, but it also appears that he is in need of hospital care."
The proffered testimony of Mr. Gore of NTA, that appellant's chances for rehabilitation are good, while properly excluded at trial, would of course be considered on a disposition remand. While the picture is not completely clear, there is reason to believe that appellant would at least be able to proffer (appellant's brief, at 37) that it was not until after the January 1970 offense for which appellant was convicted that methadone maintenance programs became available to appellant, due to the efforts of the Narcotic Treatment Agency. In February 1970 appellant tried the methadone program available at the Blackman's Development Center, but this consisted of low detoxification doses and was no help to him. Although appellant Moore's previous request for help for his addiction while in the judicial system was unavailing, this apparently changed in September 1970 when he was referred, by his probation officer, to the Narcotics Treatment Administration, with its substantial methadone doses.
We contemplate a remand pursuant to which the District Court will arrange for a current assessment by the Surgeon General concerning Title II possibilities, one that takes into account possible changes in that official's administration of Title II and also the possible changes wrought in appellant by his more successful experience in the D.C's Narcotic Treatment Agency. Even assuming the Danbury program would not be suitable for appellant in the first instance, the remand could explore the suitability of programs at other facilities — which are either operated by the Public Health Services or to which that Service has access, including the access to the community treatment centers — opened up by recent legislation. See United States v. Miller, 155 U.S.App.D.C. 110, 476 F.2d 555 (1973). The remand to explore NARA possibilities could also consider whether under Title II, after conditional release is granted, 18 U.S.C. § 4254, the individual can receive methadone in a community treatment center providing aftercare, and if so whether methadone is now being used in NARA confinement, or at least used as a transitional means of adjusting to a more rigorous NARA program.
Our view that the interest of justice calls for thorough-going review of NARA possibilities is a corollary of the approach reflected in this opinion, that the courts should refrain from questioning convictions when Congress has authorized an on-going liberalization of post-conviction alternatives. That premise calls for more than lip-service or mechanical consideration of the reality of these alternatives.
We conclude that the appropriate disposition is an affirmance of the conviction, and a remand for further consideration of post-conviction alternatives, for disposition.
The remand could also consider whether remanding the defendant to the kind of custody of the Attorney General that is provided by Title II of NARA could be blended with the kind of Attorney General custody that has been developed in connection with work-release programs, and with remittance to community residential centers, which offer guidance to persons with narcotic addiction problems.
. Appellant's Brief, pp. 24-26.
. 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a) :
"It shall be unlawful for any person to purchase, sell, dispense, or distribute narcotic drugs except in the original stamped package or from the original stamped package; and the absence of appropriate taxpaid stamps from narcotic drugs shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this subsection by the person in whose possession the same may be found."
The Harrison Narcotics Act has since been repealed by the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Pub.L. 91-513, Title III, § 1101 (b) (3) (A), 84 Stat. 1292 (Oct. 27, 1970). 21 U.S.C. § 174:
"Whoever fraudulently or knowingly imports or brings any narcotic drug into the United States or any territory under its control or jurisdiction, contrary to law, or receives, conceals, buys, sells, or in any manner facilitates the transportation, concealment, or sale of any such narcotic drug after being imported or brought in, knowing the same to have been imported or brought into the United States contrary to law, or conspires to commit any such acts in violation of the laws of the United States, shall be imprisoned not less than five or more than twenty years and, in addition, may be fined not more than $20,-000. For a second or subsequent offense (as determined under section 7237(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954), the offender shall be imprisoned not less than ten or more than forty years and, in addition, may be fined not more than $20,000.
"Whenever on trial for a violation of this section the defendant is shown to have or to have had possession of the narcotic drug, such possession shall be deemed sufficient evidence to authorize conviction unless the defendant explains the possession to the satisfaction of the jury."
The Jones-Miller Act has since been repealed by the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Pub.L. 91-513, Title III, § 1101(a)(2), 84 Stat. 1291 (Oct. 27, 1970).
. 141 U.S.App.D.C. 335, 439 F.2d 442 (1970) (en banc).
. 370 U.S. 660, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758 (1962).
. 392 U.S. 514, 88 S.Ct. 2145, 20 L.Ed.2d 1254 (1968).
. Judge Wright in his opinion states that "it was clear that a trafficking operation was in progress, but the question remained whether Moore was the buyer or the seller." Judge Wright's opinion at 1212. The answer is indeed there was a trafficking operation, and both men, Beverly and Moore, were engaged in it.
The picture to us is clear. There are undeniable indicia that the narcotics on the bed were part of a trafficking enterprise, and that in turn Moore was part of the enterprise. First, both chairs were each about one foot from the edge of the bed, facing the bed, which had its long side against the wall. The chairs were not in the position of the two men, Beverly and Moore, engaging in a dialogue, but rather faced the bed, on which both could be inferred to be working. Second, the arrangement of the items on the bed indicated clearly that two persons were working there. There was a mirror on which were piled 1,854.5 milligrams of mixed heroin, and to the right of the mirror, in front of appellant's chair, there was a cardboard record album cover on which there were 1,824 milligrams of mixed heroin. Third, to the left of the mirror in front of Beverly were 67 capsules filled with the heroin mixture. These corresponded roughly with the 50 filled capsules in Moore's pocket. (Beverly had no capsules in his pocket; Moore had none on his side of the bed.) Last, and most significant — particularly significant because nowhere in 108 pages of Judge Wright's opinion is this conclusive fact mentioned — there was one playing card in the entire room. That playing card had been torn in half, in order to provide a working tool for two men, not one.
For the benefit of the uninitiated, the mirror and the record album cover have smooth surfaces on which the heroin was placed to be put in the capsules. This cannot be conveniently done by fingers alone; the beveled edge of a playing card is an efficient encapsuling tool. Since there was only the Ace of Hearts, it had to be torn in half to provide the working tool for both Beverly and appellant Moore.
If this court were to hold on these undisputed facts that there was not even sufficient evidence to put the question to the jury that appellant Moore was a trafficking addict, it is crystal clear how the standard would be applied by the trial courts. The practical effect would be that any addict would go free of any punishment, or indeed rehabilitative treatment following a conviction, because there would be no conviction, no matter how blatant had been his trafficking.
. Appellant's Brief, p. 8.
. Id., at 52.
. "Perhaps the most troublesome question arising out of recognition of the addiction defense is whether it should be limited only to those acts — such as mere possession for use — which are inherent in the disease itself. It can hardly be doubted that, in at least some instances, an addict may in fact be 'compelled' to engage in other types of criminal activity in order to obtain sufficient funds to purchase his necessary supply of narcotics. In such cases, common law principles of criminal responsibility would clearly be applicable." Opinion of Judge Wright, at p. 1255.
. 392 U.S., at 534, 88 S.Ct 2145.
. Opinion of Judge Wright, at 1257-1258 (emphasis supplied).
. This recalls the satirical song of Tom Lehrer entitled "The Old Dope Peddler," who was "doing well by doing good."
. 392 U.S., at 540-541, 88 S.Ct., at 2158.
. See Part IV, infra.
. Ibid. And see Judge Leventhal's exhaustive treatment of this point in his separate opinion.
. 370 U.S. 660, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758.
. 392 U.S. 514, 88 S.Ct 2145, 20 L.Ed.2d 1254.
. California Health and Safety Code § 11721. The statute also prohibited the use of narcotics, and included a prohibition against being under their influence. Exceptions were provided for those who were administered narcotics under the direction of a person licensed to do so by the state.
. 370 U.S., at 662, 82 S.Ct., at 1418.
. Id., at 664-665, 82 S.Ct. 1417.
. Id., at 666, 82 S.Ct., at 1420.
. Ibid.
. Id., at 667, 82 S.Ct., at 1420. It should be noted that the opinion of the Court, written by Justice Stewart, was apparently joined in by Justices Warren, Black, and Brennan, who wrote no opinions, and in the points discussed here was joined in by Justice Harlan, who wrote a concurring opinion of his own, and to a certain extent by Justice Douglas, who also concurred, but for somewhat more involved reasons. There were but two dissenters, Justices Clark and White, while Justice Frankfurter did not participate.
. 370 U.S., at 684, 82 S.Ct., at 1429.
. Id., at 680, 82 S.Ct., at 1427, quoted in Justice Clark's dissent.
. Id., at 679, 82 S.Ct., at 1426 (emphasis supplied).
. See, e. g., the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Douglas in Robinson, 370 U.S. at 670, 82 S.Ct. 1417, where he discusses, inter alia, addiction among newborn infants.
. See, e. g., Phillipson, Drug Dependence —Opiate Type, and Criminal Responsibility (1971), a paper presented at the 33rd annual meeting of the Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence of the National Academy of Sciences — National Academy of Engineering Division of Medical Sciences, 16-17 February 1971 in Toronto, Canada (reproduced as Appendix C of the Government's Brief, at 117).
. Justices Black, Harlan, and Chief Justice Warren concurred.
. 392 U.S., at 532, 88 S.Ct. 2145.
. Justices Fortas, Douglas, Brennan, and Stewart.
. 392 U.S., at 533, 88 S.Ct., at 2154, quoting 392 U.S., at 567, 88 S.Ct., at 2171.
. 392 U.S., at 533, 88 S.Ct., at 2155.
. Ibid.
. Opinion of Judge Wright, at 1241.
. See note 28 supra, and accompanying text. It is not necessary for us to adopt judicially the view of this authority, because in the present state of the development of medical knowledge it would be imprudent to do so. It is sufficient for the purposes of this case to say that the appellant's argument, espoused by Judge Wright here, that narcotic addiction is an irresistible compulsion to take the drugs, is clearly not the law of the land by virtue of the Supreme Court's holding in Robinson.
. There are, of course, a very small number of individuals who may have the disease by virtue of an illegal act committed by another, such as a child addicted to narcotics because of maternal addiction, and a few addicts whose disease is a result of a medical prescription. See Judge Wright's opinion, at p. 1243, note 196. The comments with regard to "free will" made here would not, of course, be completely applicable to this small number of individuals. On the other hand, their number is apparently so small that their existence cannot be the primary consideration of a judicial decision in this area, and we do not read Judge Wright to rely heavily on the existence of these few unfortunate individuals to support the position he takes today.
. 392 U.S., at 544, 88 S.Ct., at 2160.
. Ibid. See also Part II, supra.
. 141 U.S.App.D.C. 335, 439 F.2d 442 (en banc).
. The court noted that to bar a non-trafficking addict such as appellant Watson becaus# of two prior felony convictions, which might in fact be no more than two convictions for possession, was "curiously at odds with the Congressional preoccupation, underlying the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act, with the distinction between traffickers and non-traffickers, and the reiterated purpose that 'strict punishment . be meted out where required to the hardened criminal, while justice . be tempered with judgment and fairness in those eases where it is to the best interest of society and the individual that such a course be followed.' " 141 U.S.App.D.C. at 349, 439 F.2d, at 456, citing H.R.Rep.No.1486, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 9, and Senate Report No. 1667, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 17, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1966, p. 4245.
. 141 U.S.App.D.C., at 345, 439 F.2d, at 452.
. See, 141 U.S.App.D.C., at 335, 439 F.2d, at 442.
. See United States v. Ashton, 317 F.Supp. 860 (D.D.C.1970) ; United States v. Lindsey, D.D.C.Crim. No. 2277-70; United States v. Allen, D.C.Super.Ct. Nos. 41333-70 and 21031-70 (10 February 1971) ; and United States v. Bowser, D.C. Super.Ct. No. 45504-70 (10 February 1971).
. Castle v. United States, 120 U.S.App.D.C. 398, 401, 347 F.2d 492, 495 (1964), cert. denied, 381 U.S. 929, 85 S.Ct. 1568, 14 L.Ed.2d 687 (1965).
. Opinion of Judge Wright, at 1240.
. 141 U.S.App.D.C., at 347, 439 F.2d, at 454.
. 141 U.S.App.D.C., at 346, 439 F.2d, at 451 (emphasis added).
. See Part III.AA., supra.
. ibid.
. IV W. Blackstone, Commentaries 29 (1854).
. 141 U.S.App.D.C., at 345, 439 F.2d, at 452.
. At p. 1250, Part IV.C.
. 276 A.2d 722 (1971). In the recent case of Franklin v. United States, No. 5960 (D.C.Ct.App., 27 Feb. 1973) a panel of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held in a split decision that addiction should be permitted as a defense to simple heroin possession. That decision was vacated and set for en banc consideration by an order rendered simultaneously with the decision. The significance of the Franklin decision is, therefore, unclear.
.D.C.Code § 24-601 et seq. (1967 edition) .
. D.C.Code § 24-601, quoted in Wheeler, supra, 276 A.2d, at 725.
. D.C.Code § 24-602 (1967 edition) (emphasis supplied).
. D.C.Code § 24-603(a).
. D.C.Code § 24-603 (b).
. See Part IV.D., infra.
.Congress lias been enacting snob legislation beginning in 1909, and continuing to the present. See, e. g., Narcotics Importation Act, 35 Stat. 614 (1909), as amended, 21 U.S.C. 3174 (1964), repealed Pub.L. No. 91-513, § 1101(a)(2) (27 October 1970) ; Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914, 38 Stat. 785, as amended, 26 U.S.C. § 4701-4706, repealed, Pub. L. No. 91-513, § 1101(b)(3)(A) (27 October 1970) ; Uniform Narcotic Drug Act, 33 D.C.Code § 401-425; Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 801-904 (1970). (The "Controlled Substances Act" is one title of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Pub.L. No. 91-513 (27 October 1970).
. At 1254-1256.
. See, e. g., The remarks of Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, S.Rep.No.2033, 84th Cong. 2d Sess., at 7-8 (1956).
. Pub.L. No. 91-513, see note 61, supra.
. Emphasis supplied.
. 124 U.S.App.D.C. 33, 361 F.2d 50 (1966). See also Judge Wright's discussion at pages 1248-1249 of his opinion.
. Brief for Appellant, at 65-72.
. Report of the President's Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia, 486-491 (1966).
.There is, of course, the twin aim of preventing those who have not yet become alcoholics from doing so, but this is not the task for lawyers and judges.
. Opinion of Judge Wright, at 1245.
. The flat prohibition against possession bears a direct logical relationship to both objectives. Making all possession illegal is both to protect the addict against himself and the public against the drug traffic (whether conducted by addicts or nonaddicts).
Congress' flat prohibition against possession, if obeyed or enforced, would amount to an infallible cure for drug addiction. In a simplistic comparison; to lose weight, don't eat; to avoid drug addiction, never possess narcotics. It may be objected, of course, that the prohibition is difficult of enforcement, but such difficulty of enforcement does not give this court a ground either to abrogate or to qualify an act of Congress. What exceptions to the flat prohibition against possession that do exist have been specifically provided for by Congress, such as certain exceptions having to do with prescriptions by medical authorities. Thus our conclusion that Congress has preempted this area, and that the courts cannot widen the list of exceptions, as we have been asked to do in this case.
. See, e. g., Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660, 672, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758 (1962) (Douglas, J., concurring).
. It appears that in the fall of 1971 there were 42 bills dealing with various aspects of the problems of narcotics addiction in Congress. Brief for the Government, at 90. The Bills of the House were H.R. Nos. 131 and 2220, 272, 273, 999, 4417, 5714, 8436, 8389, 8621, 8861, 8875, 8880, 8881, 8902, 8944, 8985, 8986, 8989, 9057, 9059, 9060, 9095, 9124, 9137, 9184, 9186, 9207, 9210, 9213, 9215, 9216, 9254, 9265, 9323, 9372, and 10453. The Senate Bills were S. Nos. 1174, 1189, 1836, 2124, and 2108.
. Judge Wright appears to place much reliance on a sentence that appears in a Congressional Report, H.Rep.No.1444, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., pt. 1, at 9 (1970), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1970, p. 4566, which states that the question of whether or not narcotics addicts " 'can be held criminally responsible can only be decided in the courts, case by case.' " At 1255. We are not as impressed as Judge Wright appears to be with this statement as authority for the action that Judge Wright urges may very well stifle, rather than encourage, the "case by case" analysis that is called for in the House Report. Secondly, just how representative are the sentiments expressed in the House Report of general congressional feeling is by no means certain. Lastly, the report does nothing to contradict our judgment that at this point in time the congressional enactments have struck a reasonable balance with which we should not interfere.
. At 1255.
. Room 15 is 10-12 feet in depth. Against the wall opposite the door was a bed which was being used as a workbench. Two chairs were drawn up to the bed; one was occupied by Sherman W. Beverly, the other by Raymond Moore. Neither of the two men was holding anything in his hands. On the bed in front of the men was a mirror and a record album cover on each of which was a heap of white powder containing heroin. Also on the bed were a large number of empty gelatin capsules, 67 capsules containing mixed heroin, an unopened package of hypodermic needles, a makeshift sieve (or "cutting screen") fashioned of a lady's stocking stretched over a wire coat hanger, a key to the room, and a pistol.
This case does not involve the issue, sometimes encountered, of the adequacy of proof to establish defendant's possession, see United States v. Holland, 144 U.S.App.D.C. 225, 445 F.2d 701 (1971) ; cf. C. H. Whitebread and R. Stevens, Constructive Possession in Narcotics Cases: To Have and Have Not, 58 Va.L.Rev. 751 (1972).
. As was sought to be claimed at one point by Albert Watson, see Watson v. United States, supra, 141 U.S.App.D.C. at 344, note 8, 439 F.2d at 451, note 8.
. Proffer (Tr. 290-91) :
"Mr. Gore would testify that Mr. Moore has been on methadone consistently since (Dec. 9) ; that he is engaged in a considerable amount of counsel-ling programs, that Raymond Moore's chances for rehabilitation from drugs were very good; that he has seen considerable growth in Mr. Moore during the time of his association with the treatment programs, and that he believes Mr. Moore .is beginning to get at the root of his addiction problem. He would testify that it is almost the universal situation that narcotic addicts during stages of their rehabilitation will on occasion continue to use or attempt to use, narcotics, and that this is a normal part of the rehabilitation process. He would further testify that Mr. Moore's level of methadone intake has been increased and that at the present time, or shortly, it will be such as to make unnecessary Mr. Moore's further resorting to the taking of any narcotics."
.The notice of appeal form calls for an entry on "Concise statement of judgment or order, giving date, and any sentence." Defense counsel inserted: "Found guilty on two counts of violating 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a) and two counts of violating 21 U.S.C. § 174; committed for examination under Title II. Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act, IS U.S.C. § 4251 et seq."
On the docket sheet maintained by the Clerk of the District Court appears the notation: "Mar. 8, 1971. Notice of appeal from order committing deft for exam under NARA."
. Govt.Br. 2. The NARA report said: " . . . Mr. Moore has shown no motivation whatever in wanting to help himself with his narcotics problem. In addition, he would be extremely detrimental to the other individuals in the program who are attempting to deal with their narcotics problem."
. Moore quit school in 1946, aged 16, after completing 8 grades. That summer he began shooting heroin. Since then his life has consisted of a procession of scrapes with the law, embracing some 15 convictions, including two felonies, housebreaking and robbery. Between mid-1946 to January 1970, 23 and one-half years, Moore spent some 13 years in jail or prison. Moore always returned to the use of narcotics within a few weeks after each release. He concedes that he supported his habit over the years by shoplifting, pimping, gambling, robbery and bootlegging.
. As to co-defendant Beverly, who had pleaded guilty, under 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a), on a motion invoking the discretion of the court under McCoy v. United States, 124 U.S.App.D.C. 177, 363 F.2d 306 (1966), on June 23, 1971, the District Court suspended imposition of sentence and placed Beverly on probation for two years.
. The brief was prepared expeditiously by Peter Barton Hutt, Esq., counsel originally appointed by this court. The argument was presented, on short notice, by Patricia M. Wald, Esq., appointed by this court as co-counsel, Mr. Hutt having entered on Government service. Mrs. Wald and Mr. Hutt were the co-chairmen of the Ford Foundation's Drug Abuse Survey Project. The Project Report to the Ford Foundation was published under the title, "Dealing with Drug Abuse" (Praeger 1972).
. Higher than the $45 average daily cost reported by addicts in the D.C. NTA's program. Staff of Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., Study on Drug Abuse in the Washington Area 15 (Comm.Print 1970).
. World Health Organization Expert Committee on Addiction-Producing Drugs, Thirteenth Report, WHO Tech.Rep. Series No. 273 at 9, 13 (1964). That definition lists the characters of the disease as follows:
(1) an overpowering- desire or need to continue taking the drug and to obtain it by any means; the need can be satisfied by the drug taken initially or by another with morphine-like properties;
(2) a tendency to increase the dose owing to the development of tolerance;
(3) a psychic dependence on the effects of the drug related to a subjective and individual appreciation of those effects ; and
(4) a physical dependence on the effects of the drug requiring its presence for maintenance of homeostasis and resulting in a definite, characteristic, and self-limited abstinence syndrome when the drug is withdrawn.
. In particular, the doctor said, appellant evidenced a behavior pattern characterized by continued use of narcotics by one who, though no longer physically addicted, has a continuing obsession to inject drugs. The doctor saw in appellant all the WHO characteristics, but basically he found a compulsion to seek and obtain drugs which had been ruling his behavior for years (Tr. 199-204). In general, the doctor testified, such a "psychic addict" begins by taking drugs for physical reasons, i. e., to attain a "high" and later to ward off withdrawal symptoms ; but after a period of five or ten years, the need to take drugs acquires an autonomous characteristic and renders the addict "involuntary to resist" the compulsion to inject drugs (Tr. 202-203). In the doctor's opinion, appellant, being such an addict, would be "compelled" to obtain drugs in some manner (Tr. 203-206).
. The amicus brief states that while some violent criminals use heroin, character istically the heroin user is passive and typically engages in low-grade criminality —property theft, and minor vice (numbers running, gambling, pimping) — Moore's pattern being typical.
The addicts' lack of energy and need for steady supply cast them perfectly for their role of small dealer, with 5 to 10 steady retail customers. Rarely.does a non-addict deal in drugs at this retail level. It is virtually unheard of for an addict to become involved in the drug trade at a higher level, where sustained and organized effort are necessary.
Widespread addiction has an especially deleterious influence on the young, particularly those searching for role models and an accepting group to which they can adhere. Dr. Robert Dupont, administrator of the D.C. Narcotics Treatment Agency (NTA) estimates that in the Model Cities area, 24% of young men between 15 and 19, and 36% of young men between 20 and 24 are heroin addicts. A study of 5,892 addicts in NTA programs in August 1971 shows 33% below the ages of 21, and 68% under 26.
. It is a first step since the addict will not "avoid the criminal process entirely. But it will bring the judicial system into phase with reality."
. Watson v. United States, supra, 141 U.S.App.D.C. at 344-345, 439 F.2d at 451-452.
. Bradley v. United States, 410 U.S. 605, 93 S.Ct. 1151, 35 L.Ed.2d 528 (1973).
.See Karl N. Llewellyn, The Common Law Tradition 529 (1960) ; 2 J. Sutherland, Statutes and Statutory Construction § 4506 (3rd ed. 1943).
. S.Rep. No. 1051, 82d Cong., 1st Sess. 3 (1951).
. Id. The Commissioner of Narcotics was quoted, on the basis of information presented during hearings, on the inadequacy of average (18-month) sentences for drug violators: "Short sentences do not deter. There should be a minimum sentence of 5 years without probation or parole, I think it would just about dry up the traffic." Id. The Committee was told that drug abuse was not a serious problem in those sections of the country where the judges had a reputation for imposing long sentences.
. This prohibited probation, or suspension of sentence, upon conviction of (i) violation of the Jones-Miller Act, (ii) violation of 26 U.S.C. § 4705(a), 4742(a); (iii) second, or subsequent, offenses punishable under 26 U.S.C. § 7237 (a), which included violations of 26 U.S.C. § 4704 (Harrison Act).
. H.R.Rep. No. 2388, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. 8 (1956), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 1956, p. 3281.
. Id. at 8, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1956, p. 3281. "The year 1952 was the peak year in the post-World War II period for arrests for narcotic law violations. In 1953 [and in 1954, narcotic law arrests] dropped. . . . Your committee was advised that the principal cause of the decline in narcotic traffic as evidenced by the reduced number of arrests was the severe penalties provided for by the enactment of the [1951 amendments.]"
. Id. at 10, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 1956, p. 3283.
. Id. at 11, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 1956, p. 3284.
. Proceedings, White House Conference on Narcotic and Drug Abuse 293-4 (hereinafter "Proceedings") (1962).
. Id. at 244 ff. (Analysis of State Senator Edwin J. Regan, California Legislature) .
. Id. at 184 ff. (Analysis of Richard H. Kuh).
. Id. at 228 ff. Senator Dodd gave these data:
Against pro-Against hibition of minimum probation and sentences parole
Prison wardens . 92% 97%
District judges . 73% 86%
Probation officers . 83% 86%
U. S. Attorneys . 50% 55%
His explanation follows:
Why? I will give you representative answers.
From James Y. Bennett, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons:
"Prisons, both State and Federal, in the years immediately ahead will be faced inevitably with the problems of narcotic offenders, addict and nonaddict alike, who are weighted down by the hopelessness and the bitter futility of sentences which seemingly stretch into infinity. "
From U. S. District Judge James M. Carter:
"Several years ago at a ninth circuit conference there was a unanimous vote against mandatory sentences. The mandatory sentence can work extreme injustice. "
From Oliver Gasch, then U. S. attorney for the District of Columbia:
"I am opposed to the philosophy of mandatory minima. Even in narcotic cases some discretion should be allocated to the judge. The answer to the elimination of drug traffic is an ideal difficult of realization. I would recommend long "conditional" sentences with close supervision by parole authorities."
From Eugene F. Dupuy, Chief U. S. Probation Officer, New Orleans, Louisiana:
"Existing laws emphasize the punitive aspects in dealing with the illegal drug traffic. Presumably, the reason for this approach is that strict penalties are expected to serve as a deterrent and to eliminate or greatly reduce the problem. Were this premise valid, mandatory minimum sentences for all crimes would be the solution. I believe that all persons who have worked with offenders know that such an approach is doomed to failure. . . . [The] person with mental or emotional problems who needs support will seek that support, irrespective of social or legal consequences."
.Final Report, The President's Advisory Commission on Narcotic and Drug Abuse (1963) (hereinafter 1963 Report).
. H.R.Rep.No.91-1444, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 8-10, 16 et seq. (1970), 3 U.S.C.C.A.N: 4566, 4574r-75, 4582 (1970). The Katzenbach Commission Report is in The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: Narcotics and Drug Abuse (1967) (hereinafter Task Force).
. 1963 Report, supra note 28, at 2-4.
. 1963 Report, supra note 28, at 39-42. It also recommended that possession of small quantities of narcotics with intent to sell be subject to imprisonment — but without a mandatory minimum — and to parole, but not probation.
. Id. at 71, with specific recommendations including: Discretionary authority if the judge, with exception for certain cases, acting upon expert advice, determines that the defendant's offense is related to his abuse of drugs "and that there are reasonable grounds for belief that the defendant can be rehabilitated by treatment." The judge would suspend sentence, and commit to the care of the Attorney General, for at least a period of six months, with possibility of return of defendant to the community as a parolee, under close supervision by a federal probation officer, and provision for inpatient services in the community wherever possible. For the event of successful completion of the program, there was a proposal for discharge and court expungement of conviction. Otherwise there was provision for resumption of proceedings and imposition of sentence.
.S.Rep.No.1667, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. 13 (1966), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1966, p. 4245. This report was based on the testimony in the 1964 hearings that followed the Prettyman Commission Report. The Senate Committee stated:
S.2191 [the proposed legislation], . . . represents a fundamental and innovative reorientation toward the problem of drug addiction and the handling of drug addicts. In brief, that Bill is based upon the simple and historically unassailable fact that narcotic addiction cannot be cured merely by prosecution and imprisoning addicts; hence, narcotic addicts, even those who have committed criminal offenses, should not be treated as common criminals in the spirit of retribution. Instead, S. 2191 takes the more realistic approach of seeking to utilize flexible tools of medicine and psychiatry, re-education and job training, family and neighborhood supervision in an effort to cure the addict and return him to society physically and emotionally prepared to resist the temptations to return to drug abuse and crime. This approach— primarily rehabilitative rather than penal — was firmly supported by every witness who testified before the Subcommittee.
.24 D.C.Code § 608 (1967). The term "drug user" was defined, 24 D.C.Code § 602(a), to mean any person "who uses any liabit-forming drug so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare, or who is so far addicted to the use of such habit-forming narcotic drugs as to have lost the power of self control with reference to his addiction." The Act provided for commitment to a hospital— "confined there for rehabilitation" — until the drug user is (1) cured, or (2) has received maximum benefits. 24 D.C.Code § 609(a).
. This was held valid in United States v. Fersner, 151 U.S.App.D.C. 20, 465 F.2d 605 (1972). Other exclusions were held invalid in Watson v. United States, supra; and United States v. Hamilton, 149 U.S.App.D.C. 295, 462 F.2d 1190 (1972).
. The comprehensive act accomplished a redefinition of drug control mechanisms, with reclassification of dangerous substances, and also provided for broadening the scope of research, education, and rehabilitation programs. Title I, "Rehabilitation Programs Relating to Drug Abuse," includes provisions for appropriation authorizations, an expanded role for HEW, broader treatment programs in Public Health Service hospitals and more scope for treatment of persons with "drug dependence problems" in treatment facilities established under the Community Mental Health Centers Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2688(a).
. The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society 223 (1967).
. See "Control of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs," President's Message to Congress, July 14, 1969, H.Doc.No.91-138, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted at 115 Cong.Rec. 19327-28 (1969). Part VIII states:
Considering the risks involved, including those of arrest and prosecution, the casual experimenter with drugs of any kind, must be considered at the very least, rash and foolish. But the psychologically dependent regular users and the physically addicted are generally sick people. While this sickness cannot excuse the crimes they commit, it does help to explain them. Society has an obligation both to itself and to these people to help them break the chains of their dependency.
. See Hearings on Narcotics Legislation, before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Senate . Judiciary Committee, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 216 (1969) (hereinafter 1969 Senate Hearings) .
I personally believe in sentences which are reasonably calculated to be deterrents to crime and which also will give judges sufficient flexibility to tailor the sentences to the requirements of the drug violator or the narcotics addict.
Prison is not the only logical alternative. In some cases, it may be advisable to use Federal rehabilitation programs, halfway houses and private medical treatment while on probation or parole. Perhaps the most promising alternative is to approach the narcotics violator in relation to his function; the professional trafficker who should be given as severe a sentence as possible; the casual and intermittent user who is perhaps only experimenting out of curiosity ; or the mentally or physically ill addict, who without additional help, cannot break a confirmed habit.
See also, the July 15, 1969 letter of the Department of Justice submitting the Administration bill. Id. at 909.
. S.Rep.No.91-613, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 2 (1969).
. 21 U.S.C. § 844 (1970). The House Report on the 1970 Act, supra at 11, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1970, p. 4577, states: "The bill also provides that illegal possession of controlled drugs by an individual for his own use is a misdemeanor, with a sentence up to [one] year imprisonment and a fine of not more than $5,000 or both."
Of. § 411 of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 851 r "Proceedings to establish prior convictions — Information filed by United States Attorney." This section provides that a person convicted of an offense by reason of prior conviction shall be sentenced to increased punishment, unless before trial, or before entry of a plea of guilty, the U. S. Attorney files an information with the court stating that previous convictions would be relied upon. Subsection (a) (2) provides that an information may not be filed under this section if the increased punishment may be imposed for a term in excess of three years, unless the defendant was indicted. This section also provides that if an issue is raised as to the prior conviction, the issue shall be decided by a court without a jury.
The intention is, apparently, that simple possession is a misdemeanor, and that the increase in punishment from one to two years is not considered an element of any crime (not triable to a jury) or to require an indictment.
. A mandatory minimum is provided, by § 408, 21 U.S.C. § 848 (1970), as to a "continuing criminal enterprise."
. Or "a drug dependent person within the meaning of section 2(q) of the Public Health Service Act."
. 18 U.S.C. § 4255.
. S.Rep.No.92-675, 92d Cong., 2d Sess. 4 (1972) :
At present there are approximately 200 Federal prison inmates involved in the institutional phPn» of the program. The role of the Bureau of Prisons in rehabilitation of non-NARA addicts was carefully discussed when the Subcommittee on National Penitentiaries held oversight hearings in March 1971. The committee now anticipates that some of the inmates presently in the program may become eligible for release before the end of the current fiscal year. The Bureau of Prisons has estimated that the first will become eligible for release in February 1972.
An institutional program, however, cannot fully prepare these individuals for tlie pressures of job, home, family, and associates they will face when they complete their sentences of imprisonment or are released on parole. After-rare counseling, both individually and in groups, is essential to improving the offenders' chances of following a drug-free and crime free lifestyle when they are on the street. In addition, periodic urine surveillance is necessary to determine that they are remaining free of drugs. The proposed legislation authorizes both community treatment and urine surveillance as necessary adjuncts to the supervision already provided by the U. ¡8. probation officers.
The proposed legislation would also authorize community-based treatment for offenders who for one reason or another have not taken part in an institutional program. For example, probationers or parolees who experiment with drugs while under community supervision may receive treatment even though the seriousness of their infraction does not warrant revocation and imprisonment. The committee finds that the purjjose here is parallel to that legislation passed in 1970 permitting parolees and probationers to be referred to community ti'eatment centers (84 Stat. 1090). This would give the probation officers who supervise probationers and parolees treatment resources they can rely on when an offender begins to show signs of difficulty. It gives the officer treatment alternatives other than immediate incarceration.
. See, e. g., King, The Narcotics Bureau and the Harrison Act: Jailing the Healers and the Sick, 62 Yale L.J. 736, 739 ff. (1953). Despite pre-passage assurances in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that the purpose of the law was to ban sales of opiates without a physician's interposition, after the Harrison Act became effective the Treasury Department began setting, and steadily broadening, restrictions on the authority ' of physicians. Regulations forbade the prescribing for opiates except in hospital, and such prescription came to be declared unethical by the AMA in 1924, after years of debate. By 1923, some 40 maintenance clinics, opened mainly by cities from about 1918, were closed.
As for the Supreme Court opinions on medical treatment, see A. Lindesmitli, The Addict and the Law 5 (1965). Early decisions precluded doctors from prescribing drugs to cater to the appetite or satisfy the craving of the addict, rather than the attempted cure of the habit. Webb v. United States, 249 U.S. 96, 39 S.Ct. 217, 63 L.Ed. 497 (1919) ; United States v. Jim Fuey Moy, 254 U.S. 189, 41 S.Ct. 98, 65 L.Ed. 214 (1920). However, in Linder v. United States, 268 U.S. 5, 18, 45 S.Ct. 446, 449, 69 L.Ed. 819 (1925), the Court upheld moderate dosages, to avoid withdrawal symptoms, and said "They [addicts] are diseased and proper subjects for such (medical) treatment. What constitutes bona fide medical practice must be determined upon consideration of the evidence and attending circumstances."
. The Controlled Substances Act provides in § 404(a), 21 U.S.C. § 844 (1970) : "It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally to possess a controlled substance" unless the substance was obtained from a medical practitioner in the course of his professional practice, or as otherwise authorized by the 1970 law.
. It provides: "Sec. 2. Acts Prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture, possess, have under his control, sell, prescribe, administer, dispense, or compound any narcotic drug, except as authorized in this Act." The Uniform Act was approved by the American Bar Association in 1932 and passed prior to 1970 by 49 jurisdictions. W. Eldridge, Narcotics and the Law 35, 45, and Appendices A and B (1962).
. United States v. Harling, 150 U.S.App.D.C. 87, 463 F.2d 923, 928 (1972).
. See Br. 93: "Appellant therefore relies solely upon the common law principies enunciated above, which serve to qualify all criminal statutes, and not upon any specific Congressional intent derived from legislative history." While Watson reserved the question whether research into their legislative history would show that the earlier statutes were not intended to apply when the evidence showed only an addict's possession for his own use, counsel have disclaimed such a presentation and for present purposes appellant's conviction can be treated like one under the 1970 law for knowing possession of heroin.
. See People v. Nettles, 34 Ill.2d 52, 213 N.E.2d 536 (1966), cert. denied, 386 U.S. 1008, 87 S.Ct. 1350, 18 L.Ed.2d 448 (1967); People v. Luckey, 90 Ill.App.2d 325, 234 N.E.2d 26 (1967). For subsequent cases reiterating Nettles, see People v. Jones, 43 Ill.2d 113, 251 N.E.2d 195 (1969) ; People v. Jackson, 116 Ill.App.2d 304, 253 N.E.2d 527 (1969).
. See Wechsler, The Challenge of a Model Penal Code, 65 Harv.L.Rev. 1097 (1952).
. The Study Draft proposed :
§ 1824. Possession Offenses; Defense of Dependence.
(1) Offense. A person is guilty of an offense if . he knowingly possesses a usable quantity of a dangerous or abusable drug. .
(2) Defense. It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under this section that the drug was possessed for personal use by a defendant who was so dependent on the drug that he lacked substantial capacity to refrain from use.
. The dependence defense provision was dropped from § 1824 when the National Commission submitted its Pinal Report on January 7, 1971. See Hearings on Reform of the Federal Criminal Laws, Before the Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 92d Cong., 1st Sess. pt. 1, 129 ff. (1971) (hereinafter 1971 Senate Hearings). See p. 407 for § 1824 in the Pinal Report.
. 1969 Senate Hearings, note 39 supra, at 1050-1055.
He said it was "questionable whether there is a substantial federal interest in reaching users" (at 1054) outside federal enclaves, but conceded that it is certainly arguable that most Schedule I and II drugs have a potential for harm great enough to warrant — for deterrent purposes — misdemeanor treatment for simple possession violations. He particularly criticized the philosophy of use of a possession offense as a means of reaching those users who, in the judgment of police or prosecutors, have not cooperated with the authorities in identifying sources.
.Id. at 315, 321-322, testimony of Dr. Henry Brill, Chairman, Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of the American Medical Association's Council on Mental Health:
In regard to handling of offenders, drug dependence, as distinguished from drug abuse, should be regarded as an illness. Drug dependent persons should be treated as patients rather than criminals. We are particularly concerned over the possible ramifications of S. 2637 with respect to those persons who unlawfully possess drugs in schedules III and IV for their own personal use. Mere possession for personal use of depressant and stimulant drugs having a legitimate medical usage should not constitute an offense. Here again, the degree of social hazard, and the reasons for having the drug should be taken into account.
. McDonald v. United States, 114 U.S.App.D.C. 120, 124, 312 F.2d 847, 851 (en banc, 1962).
. United States v. Brawner, 153 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 471 F.2d 969 (en banc, 1972).
. Concededly there are "many addicts" engaged in retail sales. Task Force, supra note 30, at 10. Estimates put their number in a range of 40 to 70% of Federal and D.C. narcotics offenders. Report of the President's Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia 579, 995 n. 120 (1966) (hereinafter 1966 D.C. Report). Kolb, Drug Addiction: A Medical Problem 173 note * (1962) (hereinafter Kolb) recommending laws that vest in physicians the responsibility of treatment of addicts, and control over narcotics dispensation, states: "Most peddlers today are opiate addicts who sell small amounts of narcotics primarily to support their own habit. These peddlers should be treated in law as addicts."
. ALI Model Penal Code § 2.01(1) (Proposed Official Draft 1962); see Comment (Tent.Draft No. 4 1955), at 122, Tent.Draft No. 10 (1960), at 6.
. ALI Model Penal Code § 2.02 (Proposed Official Draft 1962) on requirements of culpability, requires that action be done "purposely" and "knowingly," "recklessly" or "negligently," and refines these terms.
. See ALI Model Penal Code § 2.01, 2.02 (Proposed Official Draft 1962). Section 2.01(4) states that the requirement of a "voluntary act" embraces possession as an act, "if the possessor knowingly procured or received the thing possessed or was aware of his control thereof for a sufficient period to have been able to terminate his possession."
. Perkins, Criminal Law 878 (2d ed. 1969) (hereinafter Perkins).
. Id. at 878-79. Compare United States v. Levy, 326 F.Supp. 1285 (D.Conn. 1971).
. ALI Model Penal Code § 2.09, Comment (Tent.Draft No. 10, 1960), at 6.
. The defense is sometimes called "compulsion," see Perkins, note 63 supra, at 95. Technically, the term "coercion" is reserved for influence over a married woman by her husband, id. at 909.
. Id. at 909.
. ALI Model Penal Code § 2.09 (Proposed Official Draft, 1962). The ALI would expand the traditional common law statement by accepting a threat of force against the person of another and by stating the extent of the threat of force as one "which a person of reasonable firmness in his situation would have been unable to resist."
. Perkins, note 63 supra, at 954; ALI Model Penal Code § 2.09 (Tent. Draft No. 10, 1960), at 4; Annot., Coercion, compulsion or duress as defense to criminal prosecution, 40 A.L.R.2d 908 (1955) ; Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino v. United States, 192 F.2d 338, 357 (9th Cir. 1951), cert. denied, 343 U.S. 935, 72 S.Ct. 772, 96 L.Ed. 1343 (1952) ; cf. Gillars v. United States, 87 U.S.App.D.C. 16, 28, 182 F.2d 962, 974 (1950).
. ALI Model Penal Code § 2.09 (Proposed Official Draft, 1962) ; and see Comment (Tent. Draft No. 10, 1960), at 8.
. Jonah, C. 1, v. 5 (jettison cargo to save lives).
. Perkins, note 63 supra, at 956 ff; ALI Model Penal Code § 3.02 (Proposed Official Draft, 1962) ; Comment (Tent. Draft No. 8, 1958), at 5.
. The William Gray, 29 Fed.Cas. No. 17,694, p. 1300 (C.C.N.Y.1810).
. See appellant's Brief at 48 (appellant exhibited no mental disease or defect, and directed counsel not to present insanity defense).
. Gaskins v. United States, 133 U.S.App.D.C. 288, 290, 410 F.2d 987, 989 (1967) ; Green v. United States, 127 U.S.App.D.C. 272, 383 F.2d 199 (1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 961, 88 S.Ct. 1061, 19 L.Ed.2d 1158 (1968).
. See United States v. Collins, 139 U.S.App.D.C. 392, 433 F.2d 550 (1970) ; Heard v. United States, 121 U.S.App.D.C. 37, 38, 348 F.2d 43, 44 (1964). One study found only 2% of the patients coming to the Federal narcotics hospitals for treatment suffered from mental disease in the form of psychosis, Maurer & Yogel, Narcotics and Drug Addiction 171 (1962).
. 153 U.S.App.D.C. at 27, 471 F.2d at 995.
. See e. g., Consultant's Report on Criminal Responsibility-Mental Illness, (prepared by D. Robinson), I Working Papers of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws 229, 239 (1970) (hereinafter Working Papers.)
. ALI Model Penal Code, Comment (Tent. Draft No. 4, 1955), at 157-158.
. The inquiry asks for an opinion as to the individual's capacity, but the underlying predicate is that the expert will support his opinion by testimony that the described mental disease has a general result of disablement of capacity. Cf. Professor L. B. Schwartz, Staff Report, Statement, The Proposed Federal Penal Code: Accomplishments and Issues, 1971 Senate Hearings, note 54 supra, at 106, 109:
The Criterion for barring criminal prosecution for an act done while the actor barring criminal prosecution for an act done while the actor was 'insane' should be whether the defendant suffered from a mental illness of a sort which generally deprives persons suffering from such illness of substantial power to conform with the law in question. This standard does not require a determination, usually impossible to make reliably, that the particular individual lacked power of self-control at the critical moment. I would put the burden of proof on the defendant to show that the authorities had wrongly brought him into the criminal court rather than the civil commitment process.
While the ALI test, adopted in our en banc opinion in Brawner, retains the standard of individual capacity (or lack thereof), proof of the existence, or lack, of substantial individual capacity, is made out by analyzing the consequences generally attendant on the kind of mental illness involved, and also taking into account any particular features of the individual's condition that show that he exemplifies the general pattern, or perhaps that his case marks a standard exception to^ the general pattern.
. Report on Drug Offenses (prepared by Professor Louis B. Schwartz, Staff Director, and Professor Michael P. Rosenthal), II Working Papers of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws 1059, 1061-1062 (1970).
. Id. at 1062.
. See, Note on Dependence as a Defense to Unlawful Possession (from Consultant's Report of Prof. Rosenthal), in II Working Papers 1132, 1137:
Dr. Warren P. Jurgensen, Deputy Chief of the National Institute of Mental Health Clinical Research Center at Fort Worth, Texas, explained to the writer that an experienced opiate user may present to the medical examiner a false but convincing verbal picture of very severe addiction and be able to feign some symptoms of withdrawal. The success of these efforts, he stated, is likely to be at least in part dependent on the experience of the medical personnel who examine a person raising the defense, and unfortunately, the number of medical and psychiatric personnel who have extensive experience with drug-dependent persons is not great.
The Staff Report offers in offset that the motivation to feign the defense is negatived by the Staff's provision for civil proceedings as a result of which the addict could be committed for approximately 3 years. Id. at 1138-1139. But a broad philosophy of treatment may encompass methadone maintenance programs, without any confinement. Or it may and likely should provide a program for confinement in an institution that is relatively short in time, followed by community supervision.
. Id. at 1137-1138.
. Id. at 1133.
. See, e. g., (1) G. E. Vaillant, Natural History of Drug Addiction, 2 Seminars in Psychiatry 486, 489, 491 (1970). ("Although heroin addiction usually persists for more than a decade, virtually every addict spends some of that time abstinent.") (general trend "for 2 percent of addicts at risk to become permanently abstinent each year") ;
(2) Burnham, Heroin Traps 83% on Addict Block, New York Times, 1968. According to one study "about one-third of those living on the block with a history of narcotics addiction have quit tak-. ing heroin, generally without the help of any government program."
(3) Kolb, supra note 59, at 76:
Of 210 addicts studied — "20 percent of the entire number, at some time during their addiction careers, had voluntarily abstained from the drug and had succeeded in breaking the habit without assistance from physicians, hospitals or prisons."
(4) Dr. Jordan Scher notes that many junkies who lose their "highs" use occasional abstinence, including voluntary hospitalization, in order to reduce tolerance and thus heighten later capacity for euphoria. "Little wonder then that the addict sprints gleefully to a supplier on his release." He speculates that some addicts may in time become unable to gain "a rejuvenated euphoria" through such abstinence and "may lose the euphorigenic capacity altogether" and then withdraw permanently. He also posits that "needle fiends," involved in pricking without euphoria, may be engaged in "ritualistic and compulsion maneuvers intended to recover the capacity of euphoria." J. Scher, Patterns and Profiles of Addiction and Drug Abuse, 15 Archives of General Psychiatry (1966), reprinted in 1969 Senate Hearings, supra note 39, at 1060 ff.
(5) Compare Zinberg and Robertson, Drugs and the Public 115 (1972) (hereinafter Zinberg and Robertson) who say that the decline from one million narcotic addicts in 1919 to 100,000 in 1928 means that substantial numbers "deserted the use of their drugs."
. See fn. 65 and text thereto.
. See, e. g., G. Williams, Criminal Law: The General Part § 289, at 888 (2d ed. 1961) : courts "peremptorily require medical evidence before considering a defense of automatism" thought it is possible that hysterical fugues, epileptic seizures and the like may occur without supporting medical indications. The "possibility of miscarriages of justice must be accepted in order to make the law workable."
. 153 U.S.App.D.C. at 27, 471 F.2d at 995, referring to "other conditions — somnambulism or other automatism; blackouts due, e. g., to overdose of insulin; drug addiction. Whether these, somatic conditions should be governed by a rule comparable to that herein set forth for mental disease would require, at a minimum, a judicial determination, which takes medical opinion into account, finding convincing evidence of an ascertainable condition characterized by 'a broad consensus that free will does not exist.' "
The Brawner list of somatic conditions to be considered would presumably also include e. g., "pathological intoxication" or a "grossly abnormal reaction to alcohol," with violence resulting from small amounts, due to hypoglycemia. See ALI Model Penal Code § 2.01, Comment (Tent.Draft No. 9, 1959), at 11.
. People v. O'Brien, 96 Cal. 171, 176, 31 P. 45, 47 (1892).
. Perkins, note 63 supra, at 924-25.
. B. Wootton, Social Science and Social Pathology 233 (1959).
. See ALI Model Penal Code § 4.01 (Proposed Official Draft, 1962), at 66. Brawner, 153 U.S.App.D.C. at 26, 471 F.2d at 994, provides for application of the "caveat" by the court, with room to deviate for the special case of "expert testimony, supported by a showing of the concordance of a responsible segment of professional opinion, that the particular characteristics of [certain past criminal actions] constitute convincing evidence of an underlying mental disease that substantially impairs behavioral controls."
. P.L. 92-255, 86 Stat. 65 (1972).
. S.Rep.No.92-486, 92nd Cong., 1st Sess. 5 (1971).
. United States v. Chester Williams, D.C. Superior Court, No. 28001-70, Memorandum Order, March 4, 1971, set forth as Appendix B to Government's Brief, digested in 99 Washington Law Reporter 541 (1971).
.Proceedings, supra note 24, at 294.
. Id. at 297.
. See Zinberg and Robertson, supra note 86, at 47-48: "His [Vaillant's] work constitutes a break-through because it is a longitudinal study following up addicts after twenty-five years. Most of the reports about addicts from so-called experts liave been impressionistic, and consist largely of generalizations from hard cases."
Dr. Vaillant's articles from this study include those cited in notes 86, 101, 105 and also e. g., A 12 Year Follow-Up of New York Addicts HI, Some Social and Psychiatric Characteristics, 15 Archives of General Psychiatry 599 (1966).
. See G. E. Vaillant, supra note 86, at 494:
Rather, the principal reason for abstinence among O'Donnell's subjects was the fact that in rural Kentucky narcotics gradually became unavailable. Illegal sources and medical sources alike dried up. For the New York sample, where availability remained unthreatened, the most effective motivation for abstinence was that narcotics were illegal; the most potent treatment was compulsory supervision. Thus, if the addict is followed over time, external coercion of some kind appears a critical variable in facilitating abstinence. This is in contrast to the views both of sociologists like Lindesmith and Chein and the medical profession at large, who, encountering the problem of addiction at one point in time, conclude — quite correctly — that punishment per se is no deterrent.
Id. at 497: "The medical model, the casework model of mobilizing family resources and the legal model of punishment are unambiguous failures in the treatment of addiction. Nor can one hope to help the addict by taking away what little he already has — at least not without providing something in return. There appear to be three treatment methods that effectively raise the anual 2 per cent recovery rate and lower the 2 per cent annual death rate that seem to be the fate of the heroin addict. These three treatments are parole, methadone-maintenance and .Synanonlike therapeutic communities. All but parole have too short a history to be encompassed by this review. Over the short term all dramatically appear to facilitate short term abstinence; the success of all three is predictable from the natural history of addiction. All depend upon a backdrop of social prohibition and of legal sanction against narcotic drug abuse. All depend upon close and prolonged supervision, but supervision in the community. Only methadone-maintenance programs fail to require the addict to work as well as prohibiting his use of drugs. All provide some substitute for narcotics. The relative efficacy of these three treatments await scientific comparison. Hopefully the major centers now working with addicts will conduct such studies and recognize that 1 or 2 years of follow-up will be inadequate to evaluate which one is superior."
. G. E. Vaillant, A Twelve-year Follow-Up of New York Narcotic Addicts I, The Relation of Treatment to Outcome, 122 Am.J.Psycliiatry 727, 735 (1966). The described experience may be influenced by the circumstance that in New York many parole officers are trained as social workers, the system is significantly influenced by psychiatry, and the officers maintain considerable personal contact and encourage parolees to seek psychiatric treatment. Such reinforcements should be available with probation and parole officers generally, provided funds and training are devoted to society's needs.
.An informed voice reports: "Neither has produced personality deterioration as had been fearfully predicted, and both may continue to prove useful, each in its own way, in aiding the rehabilitation of opiate-dependent people." Dr. John C. Kramer, Hearings before the Select Committee on Crime, "Narcotics Research, Rehabilitation and Treatment" p. 667 (June 4, 1971), as quoted in H.R.Rep.No.92-678, 92d Cong., 1st Sess. 16 (1971), which calls for enlargement for research for a more effective heroin addiction control agent.
. Id. "It appears that maintenance on either treatment may be prolonged though ultimate discontinuation of medication may be possible."
. In the District of Columbia, the official Narcotics Treatment Agency supervises a large scale maintenance program. But it also supports methadone for transition, and motivation of the addict to abstinence.
. G. E. Vaillant and R. W. Rasor, The Role of Compulsory Supervision in the Treatment of Addiction, 30 Fed.Probation 53, 59 (1966).
. J. C. Kramer, R. A. Bass, J. E. Berecochea, Civil Commitment for Addicts: The California Program, 125 Am.J. Psychiatry 816, 823 (1968).
. 1963 Report, supra note 28, at 71.
. Id.
A serious problem is raised by the provision in the New York law that an addict offender who has been civilly committed in lieu of being prosecuted, and who proves unresponsive to or uncooperative in treatment, may be returned to the court for prosecution of the original charge. If he is returned to the court after a considerable lapse of time, much of the evidence on his behalf may have dissipated, and there is no assurance that he will receive as fair a trial as he would have if the charge had been promptly prosecuted. Although under the New York plan, the addict must consent to this procedure circumstances may arise in which it could be contended that the addict, for various reasons, did not effectively waive his constitutional rights. It would be best to avoid these problems by proceeding immediately to have guilt or innocence judicially determined at the outset, as under the California law.
. See Report to the Congress by the Comptroller General "Limited Use of Federal Programs to Commit Narcotic Addicts for Treatment and Rehabilitation," (No. B-16403 (2), Sept. 20, 1971) (hereinafter GAO Report). During the first three years of the program only 179 addicts were committed under Title I, compared with 900 per annum estimate before the Act was passed. Appendix II to the Report, at 39, contains a Department of Justice letter to GAO, June 16, 1970:
[There] may be many reasons why the United States Attorney may not want to utilize Title I. For examine, if he believes that the individual is not likely to benefit from the program, any efforts to get the individual into the program may be futile; additionally, since the pending charge is held in abeyance conditional on the individual successfully completing the program, the situation may frequently arise when the individual does not successfully complete the program, but because of the passage of time, the United States Attorney is unable to try the individual on the underlying criminal charge.
In 1969, 48 addicts were processed under Title I. Inquiries of the 21 federal districts with indexes of major narcotic addiction, revealed 14 showing no use or only one use of Title I. Yet 20 cases were reported by the United States Attorney in the District of Columbia — partly because of non-violence offenses (forgeries and theft) that elsewhere are tried in State courts, but also because the United States Attorney and Federal judges in that District Court were more willing to offer a chance of rehabilitation. Id. at 13.
. G. E. Vaillant and R. W. Rasor, supra note 105, at 56.
. Ibid: "[The] parole officer, often with a degree in social work, works to help and not to punish. However, unlike the doctor, the parole officer can often find his 'patient' a job; unlike the social worker he can demand that his 'client' keep the job
Compm'e Zinberg' and Robertson supra note 86, at note 43, describing a play that the inhabitants of Daytop Village on Staten Island, a residential treatment center for hard-core addiction, have produced and acted in order to educate the public. "Early in the play an addict has a screaming, writhing withdrawal syndrome in jail. Later, after admission to Daytop, he starts the same process. The others in his group tell him to come off it, hand him a broom, and indicate that he works or leaves. Clearly, he is still uncomfortable ; but the contrast between what lie experiences at Daytop and what he experienced in jail is a key point in the play."
. An article by William L. Claiborne in The Washington Post for May 1, 1972, reports on the testimony the previous day of Dr. Robert L. DuPont, administrator of the NTA to a House Judiciary subcommittee, that a heroin user charged with crime be diverted to treatment agencies "at the earliest possible point." Committee members asked whether he favored a pre-indictment probation program similar to one operated in Philadelphia. "I would definitely support that."
The American Bar Association's Special Committee favors a program under which eligible addicts would plead guilty to a charge and then, after six months of successful treatment, be allowed to withdraw their guilty plea. Four months later, if the addict remained in treatment, his case would be dismissed by the court. For the operating procedures prescribed by the D.C. Superior Court, see fn. 130.
. E, g., Title I of NARA.
. E. g., Title II of NARA.
. D. P. Ausubel, The Case for Compulsory Closed Ward Treatment of Narcotics Addicts, 31 F.R.D. 58, 59 (2d Cir. Jud. Conf.1961).
. 18 U.S.C. § 5010 (1970). This was held applicable to misdemeanors, in Harvin v. United States, 144 U.S.App.D.C. 199, 445 F.2d 675 (en banc, 1971).
. 18 U.S.C. § 5021 (1970). This was cited as an analog in the Prettyman Commission recommendation, see 1963 Report, supra note 28, at 72.
. R. Phillipson, Drug Dependence — Opiate Type, and Criminal Responsibility, presented at 33rd Annual Meeting, Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences (Feb. 1971). Dr. Phillipson is identified as associate director for operations, Division of Narcotic Addiction and Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health.
. See notes 99-101 supra, and text thereto.
. J. C. Kramer, The State Versus the Addict: Uncivil Commitment, 50 Bost. U.L.Rev. 1, 12-13 (1970). Dr. Kramer was formerly the research director of the California civil commitment program.
. Powell v. Texas, supra, 392 U.S. at 539, 88 S.Ct. at 2157.
. Voting disqualification in the District of Columbia only follows upon conviction of a felony, and after a 1971 amendment even felons may vote upon meeting certain conditions after completion of their sentence or when probation is granted. (1 D.C.Code § 1-1102(7), Supp. V 1972).
. Even the "high" estimate of 200,000 addicts currently is criticized as lacking solid foundation, see Task Force, supra, note 29, at 2, whereas for the year 1900; the figure of 250,000 is a "conservative estimate," and one that covers a higher percentage of the relevant population— "at least 1%." See Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, First Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse 12 (1972) (hereinafter Nat. Comm. Report)
Cf. Zinberg and Robertson, supra note 86, at 115: "Kolb and DuMez cite the estimate of the special narcotics committee of 1919, which was one million addicts in the United States. Using the FBN (Federal Bureau of Narcotics) figure for 1928 of 100,000 addicts, it would mean that 900,000 addicts deserted the use of their drugs within ten years."
. See Kolb, supra note 59, at 71, 76. The same conclusion is reported by others, e. g., G. E. Vaillant, supra note 99. See also Wilson, Moore & Wheat, The Problem of Heroin, 29 Public Interest 3, 20 (1972) (hereinafter Wilson, et al.) citing, inter alia, Robert Schasre's study of Mexican-American heroin users who had stopped shooting heroin. Above half did so involuntarily (lost source of supply) ; the others "did so in response to some social or institutional pressure; in a third of these cases, that pressure was having been arrested or having a friend who was arrested on a narcotics charge."
. Wilson, et. al., supra note 125, at 9-11. "Though not every person who tries it will like it, and not every person who likes it will become addicted to it, a substantial fraction (perhaps a quarter) of first users become regular and heavy users." (at 9).
. Zinberg and Robertson, supra note 86, at 251.
. New Perspectives on Urban Crime (1972) (hereinafter Perspectives).
. While pretrial diversion has been under-utilized in the past, even under NARA's Title I, see note 109 supra, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia has in some cases agreed "to drop the. prosecution if the addict consents to a civil commitment" under the 1953 D.C. law, 1966 D.C. Report, supra note 59, at 571. The Report noted that civil commitments under this law had been few in number — the maximum was 35 in 1964 — and featured by a high recidivism rate, estimated at 90%, due to limited staffing, meager after-care rehabilitation series and virtually nonexistent out-patient facilities. Id. at 571-72.
As to latitude of discretion given by Congress to prosecutor to permit invocation of NARA, see Watson v. United States, 133 U.S.App.D.C. 87, 408 E\2d 1290 (1969).
. The American Bar Association's Special Committee on Crime Prevention and Control and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia had discussions from September 1971 through July 1972, resulting in procedures for a Narcotics Pre-trial Diversion Project sponsored by the Superior Court, with some modifications following a meeting August 7. 1972, with pertinent officials, including representatives of the NTA and D.C. Bail Agency, and the U. S. Attorney. These Operating Procedures provide : First offenders charged with certain non-violent misdemeanors (possession of narcotics paraphernalia, violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act or Uniform Narcotics Act, petit larceny, unlawful entry), will be eligible for participation, if the United States Attorney and Project Director concur. The conditions of diversion include: entry of a guilty plea to the charge; continuance of sentencing during the diversion program (10 months) ; remaining in the treatment program for a 10-month period. The document is signed by both defendant and the United States Attorney. After the individual has remained successfully in treatment for 6 months he may withdraw his guilty plea, and after 10 months his case is nolle prosequied. If he fails to meet the standards for treatment, the U. S. Attorney may terminate his participation in the diversion program, and the defendant will be scheduled for sentencing. The diversion program is to offer methadone maintenance, methadone detoxification and abstinence programs, with emphasis on intensive counseling. The defendant who graduates after 10 months will be encouraged to transfer to another NTA facility for treatment as a voluntary community patient.
Implementation of this Diversion Project has been partially funded by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, and awaits additional Government funding.
. 370 U.S. at 664, 82 S.Ct. at 1419 (emphasis added).
As Justice Harlan pointed out, 370 U.S. at 678-679, 82 S.Ct. at 1427, the jury could have convicted solely on proof that defendant was present in California while he was addicted to narcotics, which would authorize criminal punishment for a propensity, and in effect a "bare desire to commit a criminal act."
. Another analysis released in early 1972 reaches like conclusions: slight success for the main cure programs. See J. V. DeLong, supra note 110, at 198: "[T]hese programs [detoxification centers; therapeutic communities; outpatient abstinence] help a few people a great deal and more people to some degree, but the failure rates are very high". Methadone maintenance is analyzed as a "helpful treatment modality, but just how helpful is not yet known." Id. at 246. The author considers that the Government estimates that 25-33% of addicts will be helped by methadone is on the low side, at 233. The author faces the problems that loom when and as methadone maintenance moves from small to mass programs, at 230. He is concerned that an open methadone choice may encourage people to run the risk of addiction that they now avoid because of the unattractiveness of the life-style of a heroin addict, at 233. Methadone maintenancce is beneficial in that crime is reduced and employment increased by "forcing him [the heroin addict] to switch to being a methadone addict." at 222.
. Justice Douglas, who joined in the Robinson opinion, added a concurrence which noted, 370 U.S. at 660, 82 S.Ct. 1417, that the Uniform Act does not punisli addiction.
. Justice White said, 392 U.S. at 550-551 note 2, 88 S.Ct. at 2163:
By precluding criminal conviction for such a "status" [narcotic addiction] the Court [in Robinson] was dealing with a condition brought about by acts remote in time from the application of the criminal sanctions contemplated, a condition which was relatively permanent in duration, and a condition of great magnitude and significance in terms of human behavior and values. If it were necessary to distinguish between "acts" and "conditions" for purposes of the Eighth Amendment, I would adhere to the concep.t of "condition" implicit in the opinion in Robinson. . . . The proper subject of inquiry is whether volitional acts brought about the "condition" and whether those acts are sufficiently proximate to the "condition" for it to be permissible to impose penal sanctions on the "condition."
.Justice White upheld the conviction of Powell, even assuming he "established that he could not have resisted becoming drunk on December 19, 1966." ". . . Powell showed nothing more than that he was to some degree compelled to drink and that he was drunk at the time of his arrest. He made no showing that he was unable to stay off the streets on the night in question." 392 U.S. at 553-554, 88 S.Ct. at 2164, 2165.
. We are aware, too, that conscientious district judges have sought to grapple reflectively with the implications of that approach. E. g., United States v. Lindsey, 324 F.Supp. 55 (D.D.C., 1971) (Gasch, J.) ; United States v. Ashton, 317 F.Supp. 860 (D.D.C.1970) (Gesell, J.).
. 141 U.S.App.D.C. at 345, 439 F.2d at 452.
. 141 U.S.App.D.C. at 347, 439 F.2d at 454.
. 141 U.S.App.D.C. at 347, 439 F.2d at 454. See also Bailey v. United States, 386 F.2d 1, 4 (5th Cir. 1967), cert. denied, 392 U.S. 946, 88 S.Ct. 2300, 20 L.Ed.2d 1408 (1968), cited in note 15 of Watson, as indicating that NARA's provisions required caution in any extension of the pi'inciple of Robinson.
. Kramer, supra note 121; Aronowitz, Civil Commitment of Narcotic Addicts, 67 Colum.L.Rev. 405 (1967).
. H. Packer, The Limits of the Criminal Sanction 256-7, 333 et seq. (1968).
. Cf. In re Cruz, 62 Cal.2d 307, 42 Cal.Rptr. 220, 398 P.2d 412 (en banc, 1965) ; P. J. Belton, Civil Commitment of Narcotics Addicts in California: A Case History of Statutory Construction, 19 Hastings L.J. 603, 648 (1968).
. "He [the addict] may, of course, be confined for treatment or for the protection of society." Justice Douglas, concurring, Robinson v. California, supra, 370 U.S. at 676, 82 S.Ct. at 1425.
. Study by Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation Evaluation Team, in association with the Columbia University School of Social Work, the Vera Institute of Justice, and the Harvard Law School Center for Criminal Justice, as reported in 2 LEAA Newsletter 2 (No. 8, 1972) (The study was financed by LEAA).
. See generally, Hearings on Treatment and Rehabilitation of Narcotics Addicts, Before Subcommittee No. 4 of the House Judiciary Committee, 92d Cong., 1st Sess. 155 (1971) (Testimony of Dr. Jerome H. Jaffe, Special Consultant to the President for Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs).
. 24 D.C.Code § 602(a) (1967). While theoretically civil commitment could be premised on a showing that the person used a drug "so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare," it is difficult to see how this could be invoked when the addict by hypothesis, has not been engaged in trafficking or any conventional crime.
. H.Rep.No.91-1444, supra note 29, at 14-15.
. Public Law 92-420, 86 Stat. 677 (Sept. 16, 1972). In reporting this bill, backed by the administration, the Senate Committee noted that the President's 1967 Crime Commission . had found it could not, on fragmentary research then available, reach a judgment as to suitability of methadone maintenance for treatment or as a public health approach. The Committee continued: "Subsequent events, however, have established that in appropriate cases methadone is a useful tool in the work of rehabilitating heroin addicts." S.Rep.No.92 — 1071, 92d Cong., 2d Sess. 3 (1972), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1972, p. 3189.
Public Law No. 92-420, amended Title II of NARA, 18 U.S.C. § 4251 (1970), to redefine treatment, as including services "designed to protect the public and benefit the addict" not only "by eliminating his dependence on addicting drugs," but also "by controlling his dependence on addicting drugs."
. Nat.Comm.Report, supra note 124, at 12-13.
. E. g. Perspectives, supra note 128; R. King, The Drug Hangup (1972) ; Zinberg and Robertson, supra note 86.
. See Nat.Comm. Report, supra note 124, at 152. It also recommended removal of criminal offense for distribution in private of small amounts for insignificant remuneration.
. Id. at 24, ff. See also, the report of the comparable Canadian Commission, chaired by Dean Le Dain, Interim Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs 505 et seq. (1970). This rejects John Stuart Mill's view (On Liberty) that society may not rightly restrict the liberty of an individual (other than a child) for his own good. The Commission subscribes to the moderate view expressed by Professor H. L. A. Hart in Law, Liberty and Morality, that the wane of laissez fhire requires modification of Mill's thesis, and permits society to restrict the availability of harmful substances, even though the individuals would consent to the resulting harm. While it rejects Lord Devlin's extreme thesis (The Enforcement of Morals) that society may prohibit any conduct that is deemed "immoral," it finds merit in his "moderate thesis" that "Society is entitled by reason of its laws to protect itself from dangers, whether from within or without."
See also Wilson, et al., supra note 125, at 26:
Even John Stuart Mill, whose defense of personal liberty is virtually absolute, argued against allowing a man to sell himself into slavery, 'for by selling himself as a slave, he abdicates his liberty; he foregoes any future use of it beyond that simple act.' We think it clear that for a sufficiently large number of persons, heroin is so destructive of the human personality that it should not be made generally available.
. Nat.Comm. Report, supra note 124, at 143 ff.
. Hearings on Controlled Dangerous Substances, Narcotics and Drug Control Laws Before Committee on Ways and Means, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 201 (1970) (hereinafter 1970 House Hearings). Attorney General Mitchell testified that a possession offense was needed in view of recent , Supreme Court opinions on inferences available from mere proof of possession. He said: "While possession offenses are. not the major thrust of Federal law enforcement, they are a necessary concomitant to drug conspiracy cases against large-scale traffickers."
. See, e. g., 1969 Senate Hearings, supra note 39, at 233, testimony of Mr. John Ingersoll, Director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs:
With regard to the crime of possession for one's own use, I feel, from a Federal point of view, that this should not be the major Federal law enforcement effort. The rationale for mere possession offenses within the framework of the Federal penalty structure is for the purpose of indicating a lack of acceptance for indiscriminate and non-medical use of these drugs and to provide a handhold against the criminal who cannot be arrested for more serious crimes because of his insulation from the street traffic. For the Federal enforcement point of view, some sort of possession provision is considered necessary and must be included. However, the person arrested for simple possession will many times be the narcotic addict or the casual abuser of drugs. In both cases rehabilitation is possible, and, for the casual abuser, probable.
Bee also, Testimony of Mr. Ingersoll, in Hearings on Drug Abuse Control Amendments — 1970, Before the Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 127 (1970) :
Our philosophy is one which attempts to distinguish between the abuser and the trafficker.
We feel that the abuser is the victim of the trafficker who is the criminal in this case. Therefore, we feel our efforts are properly focused against the criminal elements.
Meanwhile, we would hope that our expertise and our efforts, our research and rehabilitative techniques, would develop to the point where the abuser or the victim can be deterred, prevented from becoming victimized on the one hand or be rehabilitated in the event that he does become an abuser.
. 141 U.S.App.D.C. at 357, 439 F.2d at 464, et seq.
. See Leach v. United States, 115 U.S.App.D.C. 351, 320 F.2d 670 (1963), on remand 218 F.Supp. 271 (D.C.1963), cause remanded 118 U.S.App.D.C. 197, 334 F.2d 945 (1964).
. As to our jurisdiction of the appeal from the conviction-plus-commitment, compare Korematsu v. United States, 319 U.S. 432, 63 S.Ct. 1124, 87 L.Ed. 1497 (1943) (appeal from order of probation).
Subsequent to the appeal to this court the defendant besought the District Court for a NARA disposition, which was rejected. We cannot know for certain whether the appellant would continue to request a NARA disposition but think that in the interest of justice our judgment should not foreclose consideration of such a request.
A defendant who voluntarily extends his commitment time to gain NARA benefits would seem no worse off, in any significant respect, than one who voluntarily applies for civil commitment under Title III of NARA, and becomes subject to the possibility of 42 months treatment without possibility of voluntary withdrawal, 42 U.S.C. § 3413.
The defendant could properly limit his request to an order under Title II of NARA given operative effect, nunc pro tune, as of the date of the sentence. Indeed, a NARA disposition might have to provide such a credit, in any event, hut we need not pursue the matter.
The total benefits of a NARA disposition may warrant the defendant in requesting it, even assuming that NARA disposition — which may permit discharge after 6 months, 18 U.S.C. § 4254 — entails the possibility of longer confinement than the sentence already ordered. Such a request would waive any possible claim of prejudice from possible increase in sentence. Compare Tatum v. United States, 114 U.S.App.D.C. 49, 50, 310 F.2d 854, 855 (1962) (possibility of increase in detention time, under Youth Corrections Act, outweighed by benefit of ability to earn an expungement order). The non-punitive setting of NARA may be deemed by defendant to outweigh punitive confinement for a shorter period. Carter v. United States, 113 U.S.App.D.C. 123, 306 F.2d 283 (1962), cited with approval in Harvin v. United States, 144 U.S.App.D.C. 199, 203, 445 F.2d 675, 679 (en bane, 1971). Defendant may consider that NARA disposition even at this time may yield overall benefit (a) in preparing him for a future life free of crime, and (b) would help avoid the danger that he might, if not cured of his addiction, be subject to involuntary civil commitment, as a dangerous drug dependent person under the District law, beginning stihseguent to the service of his sentence.
.United States v. Gaines, 140 U.S.App.D.C. 402, 406, 436 F.2d 150, 154 (1970) ("this court is unable to determine whether the trial court considered the appellant to be eligible" under NARA) ; United States v. Collins, 139 U.S.App.D.C. 392, 399, 433 F.2d 550, 557 (1970) ("remanding for resentencing," so that possibility of a commitment under Title II of NARA can be considered free of the confusion introduced "by appellant's ambivalence") ; United States v. Williams, 407 F.2d 940, 944 (4th Cir. 1969) (NARA "was not sufficiently called to his attention [of the trial judge] to make him aware of his discretion").
.See H.R.Rep. No. 1486, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. 13 (1966), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1966, p. 4254:
This committee notes that the court will also be able to consider those individuals who for one reason or another did not complete the civil commitment program. The provisions contained in title II provide for sentencing to commitment for treatment, a procedure which may be described as a problem-centered device which will actually provide supervision and control for a much longer period of time than a short-term commitment.
. The Government's NARA programs differ from place to place. In addition to Danbury, there are Government facilities at Lexington, Kentucky, Fort Worth, Texas and Terminal Island, California. At Lexington alone, there are five different therapeutic communities, each using a different approach. National Institute Mental Health, Lexington, HEW Pub.No. (HSM) 71-9071 (1971).
. GAO Report, supra, note 109, at 35-36.
. H.R.Rep.No.1486, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. 9 (1966), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1966, p. 4250.
. Perspectives, supra note 128, at 54.
. We think the Surgeon General could give consideration whether a basis exists for arranging commitment at community treatment centers which would satisfy the requirements of the Title II NARA confinement. The recent amendment of Title II to include methadone maintenance treatment is discussed in note 148 supra.
. The bulk of this opinion was in proof long prior to the issuance by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals of its order of February 27, 1973, vacating tlie panel opinions in Franklin v. United States, No. 5960, and ordering a sua sponte en banc hearing, and prior to the President's message of March 14, 1973, Cong.Rec.H. 1731 (daily ed., March 14, 1973). We have thought it best not to indulge in the inherently speculative analysis of how our opinion might be affected by any permutation of results from the legislative proposal or prospective en bane ruling.
. The foregoing is not to be confused with community residential centers simpliciter, which apparently was provided hy the 3970 law for pre-release or parole situations, but rather for an adaptation of custody under Title II of NARA. We further note that the Bureau of Prisons has in mind the possibility of use of these centers for short commitments. U. S. Department of Justice Bureau of the Prisons, The Residential Center: Corrections in the Community, 2, 15 (not dated). Por work release programs, we note that "full minimum custody is a prerequisite in all eases," U. S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons, "Questions and Answers About Work Release" (mimeograph) .
. 38 U.S.C. § 2(a) (1970).
. See, e. g., Note, Heroin, Marijuana and Crime; A Socio-Legal Analysis, 45 St. John's L.Rev. 119, 121 (1970). As of Dec. 31, 1969, statistics compiled by the Bureau of Narcotics revealed that the average age for known and reported addicts was 30.7 years. See U. S. Dept, of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, Table No. 116 (1971) (hereinafter cited as Statistical Abstract).