Opinion ID: 460404
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the marijuana on the high seas act

Text: 5 The defendants were indicted under the Marijuana on the High Seas Act of 1980, 21 U.S.C. Sec. 955a-955d. 2 Congress adopted the Act in an effort to prohibit all acts of illicit trafficking in controlled substances on the high seas which the United States can reach under international law. H.R.Rep. No. 323, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 11 (1979). To achieve this goal, Congress created four different criminal offenses. Congress forbade possession with intent to distribute by any person on board United States vessels or vessels subject to United States jurisdiction, 21 U.S.C. Sec. 955a(a), 3 and on board any vessel by a citizen of the United States. 21 U.S.C. Sec. 955a(b). Neither of these provisions require intent to distribute within the United States. Section 955a(d) proscribed possession with intent to distribute in the United States. These three provisions left a serious gap in Congress' effort to reach all acts of illicit trafficking: possession with intent to distribute by foreign nationals on board foreign vessels, in cases where intent to distribute within the United States could not be shown. Congress filled the gap with section 955a(c), which states: 6 It is unlawful for any person on board any vessel within the customs waters of the United States to knowingly or intentionally manufacture or distribute, or to possess with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance. 7 Customs Waters is defined in 19 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(j): 8 The term customs waters means, in the case of a foreign vessel subject to a treaty or other arrangement between a foreign government and the United States enabling or permitting the authorities of the United States to board, examine, search, seize, or otherwise to enforce upon such vessel upon the high seas the laws of the United States, the waters within such distance of the coast of the United States as the said authorities are or may be so enabled or permitted by such treaty or arrangement and, in the case of every other vessel, the waters within four leagues of the coast of the United States. 9 Id. (emphasis added). 10 The appellants' vessel was well beyond four leagues from the coast of the United States, and therefore we must consider whether a treaty or other arrangement had expanded this nation's customs waters to include those surrounding the vessel. 11