State v. Bonoa

136 So. 15, 172 La. 955, 1931 La. LEXIS 1792
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 25, 1931
DocketNo. 31161.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 136 So. 15 (State v. Bonoa) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bonoa, 136 So. 15, 172 La. 955, 1931 La. LEXIS 1792 (La. 1931).

Opinion

OVERTON, J.

George Bonoa was informed against for unlawfully possessing five hundred of the plants known as Marajuana. The possession of the plant is made an offense by Act No. 41 of 1924, which reads as follows:

“An act to prohibit the sale, possession, transportation, delivery or using'for manufacture of the Mexican plant known as Cannabis Indica, Cannabis American or Marajuana and the derivatives therefrom, and to provide penalties for the violation of this act.

*958 “Section 1. Be it enacted by tbe Legislature of Louisiana, That no person shall possess, sell, dispose of, transport, deliver, in any form whatever in the State of Louisiana, the plant known as Marajuana, or any of its derivatives, either dried, or in the form of cigarettes, tobacco or any other way whatsoever.

“•Section 2. No person shall possess, sell, deliver, dispose of or manufacture any cigarette, tobacco, or other smoking or chewing or snuffing article which either in whole or in part contains any plant either in the dried form or otherwise of the Mexican plant known as Marajuana.

“Section 3. That any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined* not less than fifty dollars ($50.-00) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,-000.00) and imprisoned in the Parish jail for not less than thirty (30) days nor more than six (6) months.

“Section 4. The provisions of this act shall not be construed to apply to the sale, distribution, giving away, dispensing or possession of preparations and remedies which do not contain more than one-half gram of the solid extract of Cannabis Indica, Cannabis America or Marajuana or its equivalent to one fluid ounce, or liniments, ointments or other preparations which are prepared for external use only; provided such remedies and preparations are prescribed, sold, distributed, given away, dispensed or possessed as medicines and not to evade the purpose of this act.

“Section 5. That no court shall have the power or authority to suspend the sentence of any person or persons convicted under the provisions of this act. .

“Section 6. That all the laws, or parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act, be and they are hereby repealed.”-

The information rests upon facts showing that defendant had a number of the Marajuana plants growing in what is termed a second back yard, immediately in the rear of the first, a shed separating the two yards, through which one had to go to enter the second from the 'first. Some of the plants had grown to be as much as six or eight feet tall. Defendant admitted, at the time of their discovery, that the plants were his.

Defendant was found guilty of the charge, and was sentenced to pay a fine of $500 and to serve six months in jail, and, in default of payment of the fine, to serve six months additional in jail.

The record contains three bills of exception. Only one of them is argued or presented, the remaining two not being mentioned. The presumption is that the two bills, not presented, are abandoned. State v. Briggs, 142 La. 785, 77 So. 599; State v. Schuermann, 146 La. 110, 114, 83 So. 426; State v. Hutchins, 149 La. 1077, 90 So. 410. We have examined the two bills abandoned, and find that they are without merit.

The bill, relied upon for a reversal, is one taken to the overruling of a motion to quash the bill of information. This motion rests upon the ground that section 1 of Act No. 41 of 1924, under which the defendant is prosecuted, is unconstitutional, null, and void, in so far as it attempts to prohibit the possession of plants termed Marajuana, ■ as the section, by so doing, seeks to prohibit the possession of something unknown, for, it is urged, there is no such plant known as Marajuana, and hence the terminology used conveys to the people of the state no conception of what is prohibited. The motion also rests upon the ground that the section, so far as it prohibits the possession of the Marajuana plant, is violative of section 1 of article 1 of the Constitution of 1921, defining the origin and end of government, of section 2 of that *960 article, providing that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law, of section 15 thereof, providing that this enumeration of rights (refering to the Bill of Rights, appearing as article 1 of the Constitution) shall not be construed to deny or impair other rights of the people not herein expressed, and of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, in so far as it relates to the deprivation of liberty' and property without due process of law.

The theory of the accused sefems to be that although the Marajuana plant may be used in forms, such a§ cigarettes or tobacco, injurious to the public health, morals, and safety, yet it may be used for valuable purposes, such as the manufacture of hemp rope and twine, in the preparation of useful drugs, and for the production of seed, which forms a large part of the rations of the millions of pet canary birds in this country, and that, only in so far as the plant is sold, used, and possessed for deleterious purposes, may such sale, use, or possession be prohibited, without infringing, in violation of the State and Federal Constitutions, upon the liberty of the people.

We do not find any difficulty in holding that the use of the wprd, '“Marajuana,” in connection with the word, “plant,” conveys to the mind exactly what the Legislature intended to convey, namely the plant scientifically known as Cannabis Indica or Cannabis Amer. ica, though there possibly may be some slight and unimportant botanical difference between the two, but apparently none m its effects upon the human system. It is true that the word is not found in dictionaries ordinarily used, but it is found in the American Illustrated Medical Dictionary, where it is spelt “Mariahuana,” and in the Encyclopedia Brittanica (1929-14 Ed.), in the article on “Hemp”, where it is spelt “Marijuana,” and in the statutes of at least two other states; namely, New Mexico, where it is spelt, “Mariguana” (Chapter 42 of Laws of New Mexico, 1923, p. 58), and Texas, where it is spelt “Marijuana” (Vernon’s Annotated Criminal Statutes, 1925, vol. 2, Pen. Code, chapter 3, art. 720). In these statutes the word seems to be used in reference to some drug or preparation from the plant Cahnabis Indica or Cannibis Sativa. However, the application of the name of the drug or preparation to the plant, as, for instance, the “plant known as Marajuana,” could hardly be misleading, even assuming that the word more properly refers to the drug or preparation than to the plant itself. Besides, whatever doubt there may be as to what was meant by the use of the word is removed, not only by the title of the act, where the plant is referred to as “Cannabis Indica, Cannabis America, or Marajuana,” but also by section 4 of the' act, where the plant is similarly designated, the name “Cannabis Indica” being well known scientifically. We therefore have no hesitancy in overruling this ground of the motion to quash.

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Bluebook (online)
136 So. 15, 172 La. 955, 1931 La. LEXIS 1792, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bonoa-la-1931.