Court Opinion

ID: 9863744
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 05:53:28.36472+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:04:14.936760
License: Public Domain

*927BISTLINE, Justice,
conceding that the applicable statute is controlling as the State contends, but dissenting from the result.
That the other members of the Court have readily joined an opinion which affirms the trial court is not a great surprise. As the brief prepared in the office of the Attorney General of the State of Idaho informs its readers, the law as presently structured makes it impossible to do other than affirm the trial court; the hands of the trial judge were equally tied. Reluctantly I concede that convicting Fox under I.C. § 37-2732(c) was the correct procedure in this case. I write separately to register my concerns regarding the potential application of I.C. § 37-2732(c) to other Idaho citizens who possess far smaller amounts of ephedrine than did Fox, who purchased this ephedrine validly, but who may subsequently be convicted as felons.
Fox ordered the ephedrine by calling the toll-free number of a national outlet. Apparently, some of the ephedrine advertisements that are available to Idaho citizens contain warnings that the offer is void where prohibited by law, but some do not; ordering from the wrong catalog may therefore be a defendant’s biggest mistake. In another potential scenario, an Idaho citizen might travel to another state for business or pleasure, purchase ephedrine while there to alleviate his or her bronchial or other health-related symptoms, and return home again, bearing the ephedrine, only to be possibly convicted under I.C. § 37-2732(c).
Ephedrine is a drug used for medical purposes. Surely persons who make out-of-state purchases of ephedrine for medical reasons pose no more of a threat to Idaho’s safety and freedom from drug traffickers than persons who purchase ephedrine pursuant to a valid prescription or practitioner order while in Idaho. The Idaho Legislature is to be commended in its effort to reduce the trade of drugs, but I.C. § 37-2732(c) is truly too blunt an instrument. Moreover, at the least, the statute should provide a defense to Idaho citizens who did not know about the statute, did not comprehend its import, and were not alert enough to see that they should comply, even though they knew naught.
It is often stated that ignorance of the law is no excuse. The responsibility of the legislative branch in drafting the laws that govern society, then, is weighty. A law that imposes a felony for potentially very innocent behavior must be carefully worded; I.C. § 37-2732 is not.