Court Opinion

ID: 9731046
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:31:31.715126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:12.509598
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE STENGEL, dissenting: I would affirm the conviction and sentence. The majority’s dictum that no prior cannabis conviction can ever provide the basis for an enhanced penalty under the Controlled Substances Act is based on what it perceives to be the legislature’s intent as indicated by the difference between the definitions of a “subsequent offense” under the cannabis and controlled substances statutes. Despite the fact these two statutes were enacted together, the differences between them are so slight, and the similarities so substantial, that there can be no good reason to believe the legislature intended to attach different meanings to them. Our concern should properly be with the purpose of the classification and the problems the legislature was attempting to alleviate thereby. In this connection, the legislature’s declaration of intent under the Cannabis Control Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 56½, par. 701) directs: "* * * [T]he greatest efforts of law enforcement agencies toward the commercial traffickers and large-scale purveyors of cannabis. To this end, this Act provides wide latitude in the sentencing discretion of the courts * * *." Similarly, the legislature’s intent in creating a controlled substance statute was, inter alia, to: “(2) deter the unlawful and destructive abuse of controlled substances; (3) penalize most heavily the illicit traffickers or profiteers of controlled substances, who propagate and perpetuate the abuse of such substances with reckless disregard for its consumptive consequences upon every element of society * * *." (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 56½, par. 1100. In Billings v. Illinois (1903), 188 U.S. 97, 102, 47 L. Ed. 400, 403, 23 S. Ct. 272, 273 the court stated: “Things may have very diverse qualities, and yet be united in a class. They may have very similar qualities, and yet be cast in different classes. * * * [A]ll classification—must primarily depend upon purpose—the problem presented.” These statements of purpose, as they relate to the Controlled Substances Act’s enhanced penalty provision, make it clear that the legislature was attempting to classify all drugs for the purpose of combating the social evil found in the illegal sale, possession and use of the same. It is worth noting that in addition to defendant’s prior cannabis conviction he was also convicted of seven separate transactions involving the delivery of controlled substances during a two-month period between March and May, 1975. It is therefore evident that this defendant was precisely the type of drug trafficker toward whom the enhanced penalty provision of the Controlled Substances Act was directed. Furthermore, the majority’s dictum appears to fly in the face of the clearly stated wording of section 408(b), which defines a “second or subsequent offense” as any conviction under the Controlled Substances Act following a prior conviction “under this Act or under any law of the United States or of any State relating to controlled substances.” (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 56½, par. 1408(b).) This wording establishes three alternative situations where imposition of an enhanced term would be appropriate, viz., a prior conviction under the Illinois Controlled Substances Act, a prior conviction under Federal law or a prior conviction under any State law relating to controlled substances. The majority’s dictum would appear to require that the prior conviction be recognized as a controlled substances conviction in Illinois despite the fact that Illinois is one of only two, or possibly three, jurisdictions which treats cannabis separately from other controlled substances. In creating two other situations in which an enhanced term would be appropriate, the legislature must have recognized that cannabis is scheduled as a controlled substance under Federal law (see 21 U.S.C.A. § 801 et seq.) as well as in most States. Therefore, the majority’s statement would effectively reduce the second and third alternative situations stated in section 408(b) to mere surplusage. Moreover, I do not think we can properly ignore the path which a logical extension of the majority decision would require us to take in the future. On the one hand, we would have to ignore the plain meaning of section 408(b) in order to modify an enhanced sentence based on a prior cannabis conviction from a jurisdiction which treats cannabis as a controlled substance. On the other hand, to affirm the imposition of an enhanced sentence in a case involving a defendant with a prior cannabis conviction from a jurisdiction which treats cannabis as a controlled substance, while reversing the sentence imposed here based on our legislature’s separation of cannabis from other controlled substances, would create serious constitutional problems of discrimination against defendants unfortunate enough to have been convicted under a statute defining cannabis as a controlled substance. In my opinion, these ramifications flowing from the majority’s decision underscore the error of refusing to treat the prior cannabis conviction here as a basis for imposing an enhanced sentence. I think defendant’s prior cannabis conviction is a “subsequent offense” with the meaning of section 408(b) under the third alternative stated in the statute. The phrase “relating to controlled substances” seems broader than the construction placed upon it by the majority, and certainly implies that any prior conviction relating to a substance which is lawfully controlled or regulated by statute may be sufficient to permit imposition of an enhanced sentence. I would also point out that it is entirely within the legislature’s authority to regulate substances such as cannabis (see People v. McCabe (1971), 49 Ill. 2d 338, 275 N.E.2d 407), and that cannabis is controlled or regulated under the Cannabis Control Act. I do not disagree with the majority’s assessment that cannabis is ordinarily to be distinguished from other controlled substances in Illinois. I simply believe that given the intents and purposes of the legislature in creating the cannabis and controlled substances statutes, the enhanced term provision of the Controlled Substances Act carves out a limited exception under which cannabis and other drug convictions may be equated.