Court Opinion

ID: 9731297
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:41:42.333581+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:09:14.118877
License: Public Domain

McAULIFFE, Judge,
dissenting.
I agree with the Court of Special Appeals that separate convictions and sentences are permitted for the crimes of possession of a controlled dangerous substance (or possession with intent to distribute) and use of drug paraphernalia, even when the paraphernalia is the container in which the controlled dangerous substance (CDS) is located.
As the majority concedes, the canister1 involved in this case is drug paraphernalia within the meaning of Article 27, § 287A(a). The possession or use of that paraphernalia is not the “same offense” as possession with the intent to distribute a CDS because each offense requires proof of an element that the other does not. Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932); Snowden v. State, 321 Md. 612, 616-17, 583 A.2d 1056 (1991).
If this case is viewed as one involving the “unit of prosecution” intended by the legislature, I believe it is more closely akin to Cunningham v. State, 318 Md. 182, 567 A.2d 126 (1989) (simultaneous possession of heroin and cocaine justified separate convictions and penalties) and Randall Book Corp. v. State, 316 Md. 315, 558 A.2d 715 (1989) (simultaneous display for sale of 116 different pornographic magazines supports 116 convictions and sentences) than to State v. Owens, 320 Md. 682, 579 A.2d 766 (1990) *176(possession of marijuana and phencyclidine not separate offenses when the two substances are for all practical purposes irrevocably joined as one).
Determining the correct unit of prosecution is largely a matter of divining the legislative intent. In this instance, the legislature has made its intent indelibly clear—the use of this container to store, contain, or conceal a CDS is a crime. Art. 27, § 287A(c) provides, in pertinent part:
It is unlawful for any person to use ... drug paraphernalia to ... store, contain or conceal a controlled dangerous substance in violation of this subheading.
Section 287A(a) defines drug paraphernalia to include
all equipment, products, and materials of any kind which are used ... in ... storing, containing, [or] concealing ... a controlled dangerous substance in violation of this subheading.
Contrary to the majority’s belief that the legislature could not have intended that a container actually used to store a CDS be considered drug paraphernalia, the legislature spoke directly to the question, and said that was precisely what it meant.
The majority is concerned with a result that it considers illogical and unreasonable. I consider it no more logical or reasonable to hold, as the majority does, that a defendant may be convicted of possession of CDS and possession of paraphernalia when a container with trace amounts of CDS is found next, to the CDS that has just been poured from it, but cannot be convicted of both offenses when the CDS is found in the container.
I may personally agree that charging a person with the use of paraphernalia under the circumstances of the instant case may be overkill, somewhat akin to adding to a murder indictment a charge of violating a county ordinance by discharging a firearm in an urban area when the defendant shoots his victim in a public place. That problem, however, is ordinarily avoided by the use of prosecutorial discretion, or alleviated, as here, by sound judicial discretion in sen*177tencing. In any event, when the legislature has specifically spoken on the subject, the personal view of a judge is of no moment. I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals.
KARWACKI, J., joins in this dissent.

. The container is referred to in the transcript as a "black vial.” It is a small canister made of black, opaque plastic, with a snap-on plastic top. It is identical to, or may in fact be, a film canister for 35 millimeter film. These film canisters, or “cans” have long been containers of choice for certain contraband drugs. In the case of crack cocaine, small plastic or glass vials of the type used for perfume samples enjoy popularity as containers for street sales to users. For purposes of clarity, I refer to the container in this case as a canister.