High Gear & Toke Shop v. Beacom

689 P.2d 624, 1984 Colo. LEXIS 636
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedOctober 22, 1984
DocketNos. 82SA525, 83SA287
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 689 P.2d 624 (High Gear & Toke Shop v. Beacom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
High Gear & Toke Shop v. Beacom, 689 P.2d 624, 1984 Colo. LEXIS 636 (Colo. 1984).

Opinion

ROVIRA, Justice.

The appellants challenge the constitutionality of the “Control of Drug Paraphernalia” Act (the Act), section 12-22-501 to 506, 5 C.R.S. (1983 Supp.). They present two grounds for invalidating the Act as unconstitutional: (1) it violates the due process clause of the United States Constitution and the Colorado Constitution due to over-breadth and vagueness; and (2) it violates their rights to a public trial and a jury trial in violation of the sixth amendment of the United States Constitution and section 16 of Article II of the Colorado Constitution. We hold that the Act is constitutional and thus affirm the decision of the trial courts.

I.

BACKGROUND OP THE ACT

In 1980, the Colorado legislature passed the Act, which was to become effective July 1,1980. The impetus behind the legislature’s action was the belief that the possession, sale, manufacture, delivery, and advertisement of drug paraphernalia encourage and glamorize the illegal use of controlled substances, as well as increase the public’s acceptance of such use. The legislature felt that by regulating drug paraphernalia, it could promote the public welfare and deter the use of controlled substances. Section 12-22-501(1), 5 C.R.S. (1983 Supp.).

Five days before the Act’s effective date, a complaint seeking declaratory and injunctive relief was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. The district court held that the Act was unconstitutionally vague, but on appeal the Tenth Circuit reversed. Hejira Corporation v. MacFarlane, 660 F.2d 1356 (10th Cir.1981). After severing the word “adapted” from the Act’s definition of [628]*628“drug paraphernalia,” and construing section 12-22-503 of the Act as being a part of the definition of the crime, the Tenth Circuit upheld the Act against a due process challenge.1 In 1981, the Colorado legislature amended the Act by deleting the word “adapted” from the definition of “drug paraphernalia.”

II.

BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

The appellants are owners of retail stores which sell records, tapes, t-shirts, and smoking accessories. In their line of accessories they sell water pipes, alligator clips, hookas, chillums, mirrors, razor blades, straws of various sizes, and different sizes of scales.2

In July 1981, the appellants filed complaints seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in two district courts: Adams County and Jefferson County. The Adams County District Court granted a preliminary injunction, but the Jefferson County District Court denied a preliminary injunction. Both courts refused to grant a permanent injunction.

The appellants in both cases appealed the court orders denying permanent injunctive relief. Having consolidated the cases, we now review the appellants’ pre-enforcement facial challenge.

III.

APPROACH TO PRE-ENFORCEMENT FACIAL CHALLENGES

In Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 102 S.Ct. 1186, 71 L.Ed.2d 362 (1982), the Supreme Court reviewed a drug paraphernalia licensing ordinance to determine whether or not the ordinance was unconstitutionally vague or overbroad. In deciding Flipside, the Supreme Court established guidelines for reviewing facial pre-enforcement overbreadth and vagueness challenges:

In a facial challenge to the over-breadth and vagueness of a law, a court’s first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct. If it does not, then the over-breadth challenge must fail. The court should then examine the facial vagueness challenge and, assuming the enactment implicates no constitutionally protected conduct, should uphold the challenge only if the enactment is impermis-sibly vague in all of its applications. A plaintiff who engages in some conduct that is clearly proscribed cannot complain of the vagueness of the law as applied to the conduct of others. A court should therefore examine the complainant’s conduct before analyzing other hypothetical applications of the law.

Id. 455 U.S. at 494, 495, 102 S.Ct. at 1191 (footnotes omitted).

IV.

FIRST AMENDMENT ANALYSIS

In following Flipside, the Act must first be reviewed to determine whether it reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct. Thus, we must determine whether the enactment infringes upon the appellants’ first amendment rights, or is overbroad because it inhibits first amendment rights of others.3 Flipside, 455 U.S. at 495, 102 S.Ct. at 1191.

A. Appellants’ First Amendment Rights.

The appellants contend that section 12-22-506, 5 C.R.S. (1983 Supp.), governing the advertisement of drug parapher[629]*629nalia, violates their first amendment rights to free speech.4 That section provides:

Any person who places an advertisement in any newspaper, magazine, handbill, or other publication and who intends there,by to promote the sale in this state of equipment, products, or materials designed and intended for use as drug paraphernalia commits a class 2 misdemean- or and shall be punished as provided in section 18-1-106, C.R.S.

In determining the state’s power to regulate speech, a distinction must be made between commercial and noncommercial speech since the “Constitution ... accords a lesser protection to commercial speech than to other constitutionally guaranteed expression.” Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission, 447 U.S. 557, 562-68, 100 S.Ct. 2343, 2349-50, 65 L.Ed.2d 341 (1980). The statute prohibits “advertisement” by persons who intend to “promote the sale” of items intended for use as drug paraphernalia. Thus, the statute regulates only commercial speech: “expression related solely to the economic interests of the speaker and its audience.” Central Hudson, 447 U.S. at 561, 100 S.Ct. at 2349.5

“Although speech which merely ‘proposed a commercial transaction’ is entitled to first amendment protection, the government may regulate or ban entirely commercial speech related to an illegal activity.” Florida Businessmen for Free Enterprise v. City of Hollywood, 673 F.2d 1213, 1217 (11th Cir.1982) (citing Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Council, 425 U.S. 748, 761, 96 S.Ct. 1817, 1825, 48 L.Ed.2d 346 (1976); Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission, 447 U.S. 557, 563-64, 100 S.Ct. 2343, 2350, 65 L.Ed.2d 341 (1980); Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Human Relations Commission, 413 U.S. 376, 388, 93 S.Ct. 2553, 2560, 37 L.Ed.2d 669 (1973)). See also Flipside, 455 U.S. at 496, 102 S.Ct. at 1192.

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689 P.2d 624, 1984 Colo. LEXIS 636, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/high-gear-toke-shop-v-beacom-colo-1984.