Court Opinion

ID: 9717319
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:01:39.756307+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:52.538352
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, Judge,
dissenting:
Upon review of the majority’s opinion, I dissent. I am convinced that two separate judgments of sentence for delivery of a controlled substance arising from a single delivery of a single vial containing two different controlled substances violate the double jeopardy proscription against multiple punishments for a single offense.
The Drug Act prohibits: “the manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver, a controlled substance____” 35 Pa.C.S.A. § 780-113(a)(30). A controlled substance is defined as “a drug, substance, or immediate precursor included in Schedules I through V of this act.” The focal point of the double jeopardy issue is whether 35 Pa.C.S.A. § 780-113(a)(30) is read in conjunction with the Schedules, thus, making the Schedule (or, as the majority’s opinion implies, the chemical make-up) of the drug an element of the offense. The effect of the majority’s opinion is that the Schedule or chemical make-up of the drug is an element of the offense of delivery of the drug. However, I am convinced that the Schedules were not *75intended to be employed as an element of the drug offense itself, but rather the Schedules were created solely for the purposes of imposing sentences consistent with the individual drug’s potential harm to society. In essence, the Schedules are merely a sentencing guideline based on the legislature’s qualitative analysis of the individual drug’s potential for harm.
In sum, I would hold that when two different drugs, contained in a single vial, are delivered in a single transaction, only one violation of the Drug Act occurs. The appellant is correct: The double jeopardy proscription against multiple punishments for a single offense has been violated; and appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to attack the legality of sentences. Accordingly, under the facts before us, the separate sentences for delivery should be vacated and a single sentence should be imposed based upon the drug in the Schedule with the greater possible sentence, that being Tuinal.