Court Opinion

ID: 9741995
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:05:08.67735+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:27.703669
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
dissenting.
The majority opinion tacitly concedes that subsection (7) of section 28-4,125, R. R. S. 1943, might be unconstitutional if the State attempted to enforce it in many different situations and against various classes of persons. Nevertheless, the court holds that the defendant has no standing to challenge the constitutionality of subsection (7), even though he has been convicted under it, because the. court determines that the statute clearly applies to the defendant’s conduct, and that such conduct could constitutionally have been made criminal. The real issue is whether subsection (7) of section 28-4,125, R. R. S. 1943, is unconstitutional, not whether some other version of the statute might have been constitutional.
Subsection (7), under its terms, clearly applies to all sorts of essentially innocent conduct as well as to what is presumptively criminal conduct. We have not previously been so concerned with procedural problems of standing in challenges to the constitutionality of other provisions of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. In State v. Adkins, 196 Neb. 76, 241 N. W. 2d 655, the defendants moved for a dismissal of charges prior to trial on the ground that the statute was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad on its face in contravention of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitution. In that case we held the subsection *813under consideration unconstitutionally vague and over-broad without any evidence of the particular conduct the defendants had engaged in. We said there: “The test to determine whether a statute defining an offense is void for uncertainty (1) is whether the language may apply not only to a particular act about which there can be little or no difference of opinion, but equally to other acts about which there may be radical differences, thereby devolving on the court the exercise of arbitrary power of discriminating between the several classes of acts, and (2) the dividing line between what is lawful and what is unlawful cannot be left to conjecture.” We also determined in Adkins that the subsection there involved was so “indefinite as to embrace not only acts commonly recognized as reprehensible but also others which it is unreasonable to presume were intended to be made criminal.” In that regard we said: “It is not permissible to enact a law which, in effect, spreads an all-inclusive net for the feet of everybody upon the chance that, while the innocent will surely be entangled in its meshes, some wrongdoers also may be caught.”
Subsection (7) of section 28-4,125, R. R. S. 1943, by its specific terms applies to all sorts of essentially innocent conduct in even more obvious fashion than the subsection involved in Adkins. The court, however, now ignores the basic constitutional issues and resorts to procedural issues of “standing.” The majority opinion might even be taken to approve the constitutionality of subsection (7). It should be pointed out here that the constitutional validity of an act of the Legislature is to be tested and determined not by what has been or possibly may be done under it, but by what the law authorized to be done under and by virtue of its provisions. See Bachus v. Swanson, 179 Neb. 1, 136 N. W. 2d 189.
Subsections (1) and (3) of section 28-4,125, R. R. S. 1943, which make it a crime to manufacture, dis*814tribute, deliver, dispense, or possess a controlled substance or a counterfeit controlled substance, each contain specific exemptions for conduct otherwise authorized by the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. Subsection (7) does not contain any such exceptions. The subsection simply makes it unlawful to knowingly or intentionally “deliver, distribute, or dispense” an uncontrolled substance which has been represented to be a controlled substance. The quoted words are specifically defined in section 28-4,115, R. R. S. 1943. “Dispense” is defined to mean only a delivery pursuant to a lawful order or prescription of a licensed physician, and “dispenser” includes only a licensed pharmacist or other practitioner. “Distribute” is defined to mean to deliver other than by administering or dispensing, and “deliver” or “delivery” means the actual, constructive, or attempted transfer from one person to another.
The Uniform Controlled Substances Act applies only to controlled substances. The act specifically does not apply to any non-narcotic substance which may be lawfully sold over the counter without a prescription. Subsection (7) of section 28-4,125, R. R. S. 1943, is therefore the only portion of the act which pertains to uncontrolled substances, and the first sentence of that subsection contains the complete specification of all the elements of the crime. “It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly or intentionally deliver, distribute, or dispense a substance that such person expressly or implicitly represents to be a controlled substance but which is not in fact such a substance.” There are obviously no exemptions or exceptions in the subsection. It can be argued that the Legislature intended to include the same exceptions set out in other parts of the act under which possession, handling, and selling of controlled substances is authorized and lawful. These exceptions revolve around prescribing and handling by licensed physicians, pharmacists, and practitioners. Any conclusion that the Legislature inadvert*815ently omitted the exceptions is destroyed, however, because the word “dispense” is used in subsection (7) without any qualification whatever. “Dispense,” by specific definition in the act, means only a delivery pursuant to a lawful order or prescription of a licensed physician, and “dispenser” includes only a licensed pharmacist or other practitioner. The subsection therefore sweeps with a broad broom, and goes far beyond illegal sales or offers to sell and deliver made in the course of the illegal traffic in controlled substances.
Except for subsection (7), the acts which that subsection prohibits and makes criminal were otherwise not unlawful. In Nebraska there is no statute which makes it a crime to offer to sell a controlled substance. Neither is there any criminal statute which forbids representing an uncontrolled substance to be a controlled substance.
Subsection (7) does not require that an accused know that the substance delivered is not a controlled substance. The majority opinion interprets the subsection that way. The State vigorously supports that interpretation and asserts in its brief: “Thus a simple reading of the language of Section 28-4,125(7), indicates that the accused need not know that the substance is not controlled, as long as he intentionally or knowingly delivered, dispensed or distributed the substance which he expressly or. implicitly represented to be a controlled substance.” It is argued by the defendant that a mistaken or erroneous belief as to the nature of the substance delivered is a defense. The State contends that the prohibited delivery or dispensing furnishes the only criminal intent required by the statute.
The issue of whether or not an accused must know that the substance delivered is not, in fact, a controlled substance is only a part of the broader issue of whether or not subsection (7) is clear and definite. A far greater problem on the issue of indefiniteness arises in attempting to determine the- meaning of “implicitly *816represents.” In contrast with the word “expressly,” it is uncertain what statements or conduct can be said to implicitly represent a substance to be a controlled substance. The dictionary meaning of the word “implicit” is: tangled or twisted together, tacitly involved in something else, capable of being understood from something else though unexpressed, capable of being inferred. The term could include conduct alone. It could also include ambiguous or otherwise inaccurate or erroneous statements. A mistaken statement that a substance is obtainable only on prescription might well be said to “implicitly represent” it as a controlled substance, even though the statement is erroneous and made innocently. At the least, subsection (7) fails to fairly define what specific conduct is criminal, and fails to provide ascertainable standards of law enforcement which are free from arbitrary and discriminatory action. The dividing line between what is lawful and unlawful cannot be left to conjecture. The citizen cannot be held to answer charges based upon penal statutes whose mandates are so uncertain that they will reasonably admit of different constructions. Penal statutes prohibiting the doing of certain things, and providing a punishment for their violation, should not admit of such a double meaning that the citizen may act upon one conception of its requirements and the .courts upon another. A crime must be defined with sufficient definiteness and there must be ascertainable standards of guilt sufficient to inform those subject thereto as to what conduct will render them liable to punishment thereunder. State v. Nelson, 168 Neb. 394, 95 N. W. 2d 678.
Subsection (7) as drawn goes far beyond the illegal traffic in controlled substances and the sale of substituted substances. It sweeps within its prohibition all sorts of actions not normally considered to be criminally culpable. As it stands, the subsection makes it a crime for a physician to prescribe or administer a pla*817cebo which he represents to be a controlled substance, or for a pharmacist to accidently or negligently dispense an uncontrolled substance represented to be a controlled substance. The subsection even makes it a crime for a person to give aspirin to a friend mistakenly representing and believing it to be a controlled substance issued only under a prescription. Clearly there is no reasonable relationship between the conduct prohibited and the public purpose to be achieved.
A legislative decision to restrict certain activity must be grounded on a rational basis. The extent to which the Legislature may exercise the police power, an attribute of state sovereignty, is primarily a matter of legislative judgment, but the purpose of the regulatory matter must be legitimate and the means employed to effect it must be reasonable. Bridgeford v. U-Haul Co., 195 Neb. 308, 238 N. W. 2d 443.
Even if the specific intent of the Legislature in adopting subsection (7) of section 28-4,125, R. R. S. 1943, were clearly ascertainable, this court could not interpret the subsection by limiting its application without completely rewriting it. As we said in State v. Adkins, 196 Neb. 76, 241 N. W. 2d 655: “(I)f drastic surgery is necessary to preserve it, the surgery should, in our opinion, be performed by the Legislature and not by the court.”
“A court cannot, under the guise of its powers of construction, rewrite a statute, supply omissions, or make other changes * * *.” Bessey v. Board of Educational Lands & Funds, 185 Neb. 801, 178 N. W. 2d 794.
Only two other states have enacted legislation in this area as an addition to the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. Each statute differs from that of Nebraska, and each is different from the other. Neither of them use the word “dispense,” and both attempt to differentiate between sales or deliveries which would be lawful or unlawful if other provisions of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act were applicable. Apparently *818the constitutionality of the statutes has not yet been determined. See, Cal. Health & Safety Code, § 11355 (West, 1975); Ill. Ann. Stat., Ch. 56%, § 1404 (Smith-Hurd Supp., 1977).
Subsection (7) of section 28-4,125, R. R. S. 1943, is unconstitutionally indefinite and overbroad. It should not be glossed over by tacit approval. The attention of the Legislature ought to be specifically directed to the subsection to permit the Legislature to enact proper and constitutional legislation directed at the specific conduct which the Legislature desires to prohibit.
Brgdkey, J., joins in this dissent.