Opinion ID: 663117
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The application of the Buyer-Seller defense to 21

Text: U.S.C. Sec. 843(b) 29 The appellants were convicted of using a communication facility to facilitate the distribution of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 843(b). They argued that if they were using the telephone to purchase cocaine for their own use, the buyer-seller defense should apply and preclude conviction under section 843(b). The district court instructed the jury that the buyer-seller defense was a valid defense to the conspiracy charge. On the telephone charges, however, the court gave the following instruction: 30 Concerning the use of a telephone, however, a person may facilitate the distribution of drugs without regard to what the person does or intends to do with the cocaine that is purchased. 31 The appellants claim that this instruction was improper. We reject their argument on this point. The statute in question reads as follows: 32 It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally to use [the telephone] in ... facilitating the commission of any act or acts constituting a felony under any provision of [Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act]. 33 21 U.S.C. Sec. 843(b). Distributing cocaine is felony under that act. 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841. The appellants were charged with using the telephone to facilitate that distribution. If, by their use of the telephone, the appellants have made the distribution of the cocaine easier, they have facilitated it and violated the statute. United States v. Binkley, 903 F.2d 1130, 1135-36 (7th Cir.1990). What they do with the cocaine after it is distributed is irrelevant to whether they facilitated the distribution; the crime is complete long before they either use or dispose of the cocaine. The subsequent treatment of the cocaine cannot retroactively diminish [the] previous facilitation of [the distribution]. Id. at 1136. Under the clear terms of the statute a person who uses a telephone to assist the distribution of cocaine, and then consumes the cocaine is as culpable as the one who uses the telephone to assist the distribution, and then gives the cocaine to another to consume. 34 In sum, the defendants' status as buyers or distributors is of no consequence regarding section 843(b); rather, their status as facilitators alone gives rise to criminal liability. For that reason, we reaffirm the holding in Binkley that the buyer-seller defense has no effect on 21 U.S.C. sec. 843(b).