Court Opinion

ID: 9755680
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:46:31.961454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:10.106082
License: Public Domain

Baldwin, C. J.
(dissenting). We are concerned with the expressed intent of the legislature when it amended the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act (General Statutes c. 344) in 1959. Prior to the amendment, as well as after, § 19-246 made it a crime, inter alia, for any person to possess narcotics or have them under his control, except as authorized by law. Addiction to and administration of narcotics to oneself, as distinguished from administration generally, were, prior to the amendment, not specifically prohibited. Section 19-265 provided a penalty for the violation of any provision of the act. In 1959, the General Assembly amended § 19-246 by adding drug addiction and administration of drugs to oneself to the list of prohibited acts. Public Acts 1959, No. 485, § 1. At the same time, self-administration and addiction were excluded from the operation of § 19-265. Public Acts 1959, No. 485, § 2. The legislature then added a new section, now § 19-265a, prescribing a separate penalty for self-administration or addiction. Public Acts 1959, No. 485, § 3. Under § 19-265a, although not under § 19-265, the court may, instead of imposing a prison sentence, order probation or commitment to a mental institution *7for treatment. Furthermore, the maximum term of imprisonment under § 19-265 is greater than under 419-265a.
The obvious purpose of the 1959 act was to reduce the penalty or permit treatment rather than imprisonment in the case of violations by those who were engaged only in self-administration of drugs or ministering to their own drug addiction. That purpose would be completely defeated if the literal interpretation adopted by the majority were followed. In order to administer a narcotic drug to himself, a person must, at some time, possess the drug or have it in his control. The construction which the majority feel impelled to give to §4 19-246, 19-265 and 19-265a makes possession or control for any purpose a violation subject to the heavier penalty of § 19-265. Under this interpretation, every case of self-administration could be prosecuted as one of possession and the heavier penalty be thus invoked.
The jury should have been instructed, as requested by the defendant, to indicate in their verdict whether the possession was for self-administration or ministration to a drug addiction. The requested instruction was especially vital in view of the defense of entrapment. The jury could have found the defendant not guilty of possession for sale, because of entrapment, but guilty of possession for self-administration. Under such a verdict, the court could not have imposed the sentence it did.