Drug- and Alcohol-Related Crime Notes

Controlled substance: strictly regulated due to abuse/addiction potential.
Psychoactive drug: alters mood, anxiety, behavior, cognition, or mental tension.
Stimulants: affect the central nervous system; cause arousal, alertness, or excitation (e.g., amphetamines, cocaine).
Depressants: slow down the central nervous system; cause drowsiness, relaxation, or sleep. Includes narcotics (opiates) and non-narcotics (alcohol, barbiturates).
Hallucinogens: affect the central nervous system causing visual or auditory hallucinations (e.g., LSD, PCP).
Marijuana: classified as a hallucinogen, stimulant, and depressant.
Inhalants: Stimulate but have very short-lived effects (e.g., amyl nitrite and nitrous oxide).
Designer Drugs: Synthetic drugs mimicking illegal drugs (e.g., Ecstasy).
Steroids: natural/synthetic hormones promoting cell and muscle growth.

19th Century: Narcotics were legal and widely used.
1888: Federal restrictions on smoking opium.
1906: Federal Pure Food and Drug Act required drug amount labels.
1914: Harrison Narcotics Act required registration and tax for narcotics/cocaine dealers.
Marijuana Tax Act: Taxed and penalized cannabis use.
Boggs Act: Made marijuana illegal and removed heroin from the list of medically useful drugs.
1970: Uniform Controlled Substances Act regulated controlled substances.

Forbids manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
Forbids creating, delivering, or possessing a counterfeit substance.
Forbids offering or agreeing to deliver a controlled substance.
Criteria for Schedule I drugs: high abuse potential, no accepted medical use, lack of safety.

War on Drugs: Launched in the 1980s to regulate and prohibit dangerous drugs.
Harm reduction proposals include changes in drug policies, treatment, and management.
Medical cannabis: Use of cannabis and its constituent THC as a physician-recommended form of medicine or herbal therapy.

Schedule 1: High abuse potential, no medical use (e.g., heroin, LSD, marijuana).
Schedule 2: High abuse potential, accepted medical use (e.g., opium, cocaine, PCP).
Schedule 3: Some abuse potential, accepted medical use (e.g., anabolic steroids, ketamine).
Schedule 4: Low abuse potential, useful in treatment (e.g., depressants, tranquilizers).
Schedule 5: Low abuse potential, limited dependence risk (e.g., cough medicines with opium).

Federal and state systems categorize offenses by possession and sale/distribution.
Actual possession: Substance on person or in carried container
Constructive possession: Substance accessible and subject to control.
Knowing Possession: requires a “knowing” state of mind (mens rea).
Possession with Intent to Deliver: Proven by quantity, packaging implements, activities, or statements.

Delivery of a controlled substance: Transfer from one person to another.
Simulated controlled substance: Representing a substance as a controlled substance.
Drug conspiracy: Agreement to commit a drug-related act.
Drug loitering: Action manifesting intent to engage in illegal drug activity.
Drug transportation: Transporting a controlled substance in a vehicle.
Cultivation of Marijuana: a felony punishable by a year or more in prison.
Drug paraphernalia: Equipment for use with controlled substances.

Temperance and Prohibition: 1917: Eighteenth Amendment prohibited alcohol manufacture, sale, and transportation.
1933: Twenty-First Amendment repealed prohibition.
Dram shop acts: Strict liability on sellers when the sale results in harm to a third party.

Intoxication: diminished physical/mental control due to alcohol/drugs.
BAC (blood alcohol content) level of 0.08 percent is the almost uniform standard.
Elements of DUI: Operating a vehicle while impaired by intoxicant or with BAC above a prohibited level.
DUI Traffic Stops: Officer observes erratic driving, questions driver, administers field sobriety tests.
DUI Statutes: Imply consent to blood, breath, or urine tests for BAC level.

Voluntary intoxication is not a defense against general intent crimes.
Alcoholics can't be punished for their condition, but they can be punished for appearing in public while intoxicated.