High Ol' Times, Inc. v. Busbee

456 F. Supp. 1035, 4 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1721, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15591
District Court, N.D. Georgia·Decided September 12, 1978·No. Civ. A. 78-628 A·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

ORDER

RICHARD C. FREEMAN, District Judge.

This is an action challenging the constitutional validity of three recently enacted Georgia statutes, the so-called “Head Shop Acts:” (1) Ga.Code § 79A-811.1, outlawing the sale or offer of “drug-related objects;” (2) Ga.Code § 26-9913, prohibiting the sale or offer of “drug-related objects” to minors; and (3) Ga.Code § 26-9912, proscribing the sale or display of “restricted drug-related printed material” to minors. Plaintiffs are vendors, distributors, and potential customers of the head shop trade. The sellers purport to represent the interest their minor customers hold in the free flow of drug-related information. See Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 195, 97 S.Ct. 451, 50 L.Ed.2d 397 (1976). The court in our orders entered April 14,1978, High OF Times, Inc. v. Busbee, 449 F.Supp. 364 (N.D.Ga.1978), and May 9, 1978, denied plaintiffs’ request for temporary injunctive relief on grounds of abstention as to two of the challenged statutory provisions: Ga.Code §§ 79A-811.1 and 26-9913. Plaintiffs thereupon filed notice of an interlocutory appeal, 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1), of our denial of a preliminary injunction to enforcement of the two “drug-related objects” statutes.

On May 3, 1978, the court convened a hearing on plaintiffs’ preliminary and permanent injunction requests, Rule 65(a)(2), Fed.R.Civ.P., as to the one challenged statute remaining within our jurisdiction, Ga. Code § 26-9912, restricting drug-related printed materials. At the hearing the court granted defendants leave to supplement the record with documentary evidence and the defendants agreed to restrain enforcement of the printed materials act pending a decision on the request for injunctive and declaratory relief. The record is now complete and the court may rule on the constitutionality of Ga.Code § 26-9912.

The court will begin our review with a statement of the parties’ contentions. This statement will be followed by a brief presentation of the disputed statute and a marshalling of the evidence presented. Next, in order to choose the applicable standard of review, we will determine whether the statute restricts speech protected by the First Amendment. If protected speech is infringed, the court will then apply a chosen standard of review weighing the competing interests of the state, on the one side, and the interests of the vendors and their minor customers, on the other.

CONTENTIONS OF THE PARTIES

Plaintiffs raise myriad constitutional challenges to the restriction of printed material, but primarily assail its allegedly impermissible vagueness and facial over-breadth in light of First Amendment guarantees. Defendants contend: (1) that various possible constructions of the statute require the federal court to abstain in its constitutional review; (2) that the statute does not compromise First Amendment protection because: (i) no prior restraints are imposed; (ii) stringent regulation and control of communicative material to minors is allowable; and (iii) the exercise of police power in this instance strengthens the parent-child relationship; and (3) that the act is not overbroad as it merely restricts sales of a certain kind of literature to minors. The court need not reconsider defendants’ abstention contentions as nothing has been presented herein which was not previously argued and decided adversely to defendants in our order of April 14, 1978. High OF Times, Inc. v. Busbee, supra at 369-70.

*1038 GA.CODE § 26-9912 and the EVIDENCE PRESENTED

Ga.Code § 26-9912, which has been set out in full in the court’s previous order, High 01’ Times, Inc. v. Bushee, supra at 372 (Appendix), makes it a misdemeanor “to sell, deliver, distribute, display for sale or provide to a minor. . . .” or to possess with intent to transfer to a minor, any restricted drug-related printed material. A minor may also be punished as a misdemeanant for misrepresenting his age in order to purchase or obtain this material. “Restricted drug-related printed material” is defined as any printed matter:

which is intended to disseminate information primarily for one or more of the following purposes: (A) To advocate or recommend the use or possession of a dangerous drug or controlled substance . (B) To advertise, describe, explain, depict or display any method by which a dangerous drug or controlled substance may be obtained or produced . (C) To advertise, describe, explain, depict or display any machine, instrument, tool, equipment, contrivance or device ... to introduce into the human body ... to enhance the effect on the human body ... to conceal any quantity . . . [or] to test the strength, effectiveness or purity of any dangerous drug or controlled substance .

Ga.Code § 26-9912(a)(4).

The banned material is regarded in the act as detrimental to the health, safety, welfare, or morals of minors. The restricted printed material is to be selected and identified “in accordance with the prevailing standards of the adult community taken as a whole . . . .” Ga.Code § 26-9912(b).

Plaintiffs have entered into evidence a series of exhibits from the vendors’ shops which they fear may fall within the statute’s ambit: (1) books: W. Mortimer, The History of Coca (1974); W. Drake, The Connoisseur’s Handbook of Marijuana (1971); and C. Baker, Physicians’ Desk Reference (32d ed. 1978); (2) magazines: High Times, Aug. 1977; Head, Mar. 1978; Newsweek, May 30,1977 at 20 (special article, “Cocaine Out of Control”); and N.Y. Times, Dec. 18, 1977, § 6 at 15 (magazine cover story, “Behind America’s Marijuana High”); and (3) poster: “Marijuana The Assassin of Youth.” The plaintiffs have also elicited testimony on the record of local head shop proprietors, a representative of a national distributor to head shops, and a publisher of a head shop trade magazine. The witnesses’ testimony focused on the issue of irreparable harm but also included a description of the trade and wares of the threatened businesses. Defendants have tendered one book and two magazines as evidence: C. Darth, The Whole Drug Manufacturers Catalog (1977); High Times, Sept. 1977 and April 1978, as examples of material which the statute is intended to proscribe.

The books and magazines generally exalt drugs and hawk the appurtenances of drug use. Defendants seek to highlight the September 1977 High Times’ centerfold, at 56-57, a school lunch box purportedly filled with marijuana, the April 1978 High Times’ guide to the “Best Smuggling Vehicles,” at 60, and the Catalog’s “Kitchen Chemistry and Bathtub Dope Section,” at 60. Defendants contend that this material exemplifies the publishers’ alleged intent to seduce juveniles into illegal drug use and possession. In these same exhibits, however, plaintiffs find articles on electronic surveillance, April 1978 High Times, at 40, and the economic impact of illicit drug traffic in the United States, id. at 45.

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High Ol' Times, Inc. v. Busbee, 456 F. Supp. 1035, 4 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1721, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15591 (N.D. Ga. 1978).

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