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Making phone calls to get drugs for personal use not a felony
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Making phone calls to get drugs for personal use not a felony
October 14, 2009
Topic: Criminal
The Supreme Court held in Abuelhawa v. United States that making phone calls in order to obtain drugs for personal use was not a felony under 21 U.S.C. § 843(b). This section of the United States Code makes it a felony to facilitate the commission of a drug felony, which in this case would have been the sale of the drugs to the defendant. However, the Supreme Court rejected this idea stating that stating that Congress intentionally made different levels of punishment for buying and selling drugs. Therefore, it would be adsurb to make every purchase in essence a sale because it is axiomatic that a seller must have a buyer. If Congress wanted to make the punishments equal, they could have done so. To read this in the manner the government proposed would be to eliminate the prosecution of purchases and treat all parties to a transaction as a seller.
Our firm handles complex drug cases in Florida and Georgia state and federal courts. Contact us today if you need assistance with a sell or delivery of drugs charge.
