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170 Tex. Crim. 331

340 S.W.2d 806

Getters v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Decided November 2, 1960

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas · decided 1960-11-02

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"`Marihuana' means the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, or its seeds. However, it does not include ... the sterilized seed of the plant which is incapable of germination." (Emphasis added).”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Moore v. State

Relies on 164 Tex. Crim. 226 - Pelham v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1960-11-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently July 1988

5 state decisions

20196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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*332DICE, Judge.

¶1Appellant was convicted as a second offender under the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act, Art. 725b, V. A. P. C., for the unlawful possession of marihuana and his punishment assessed at confinement in the penitentiary for 10 years.

¶2The state’s proof shows that on the date alleged, Officers Gray and Stringfelow, of the Narcotics Division of the Houston Police Department, went to the appellant’s apartment with a search warrant to search for narcotic drugs. When the officers arrived, appellant and a Negro female were present in the apartment. During the search, Officer Gray noticed that the appellant kept looking at a dresser in the room, whereupon he went to the dresser and found in an open candy box on top of the dresser two brown paper packages which contained some seeds, a leafy substance, and two small brown strips of cigarette paper. Officer Gray, who had been assigned to the narcotics division for five and one-half years, testified that in his opinion the seeds in the packages were marihuana seeds and that the leafy substance was marihuana. Officer Stringfellow testified that the two packages contained enough marihuana leaves, if used with the seeds, to make a marihauna cigarette and that the two small brown pieces of paper resembled pieces of paper which had been torn from a marihauna cigarette. A chemical and microscopic examination of the contents of the two packages by Chemist Robert F. Crawford of the Houston Police Department showed that the packages contained approximately five grams of marihuana seed and 35 particles or leaf fragments of marihuana. Chemist Crawford testified that the 35 leaf fragments of marihuana were visible to the naked eye; that although he did not weigh them, they might weigh as much as 2/100 of a gram. He stated that the 35 leaf fragments would not make a marihuana cigarette. He further stated that the marihuana seeds contained no narcotics and that he was unable to say whether they were viable. It was shown by the testimony of Officers Gray and Stringfellow that the users of narcotics in the Houston area smoked marihauna seeds in marihuana cigarettes.

¶3The prior alleged conviction of appellant was stipulated.

¶4Testifying as a witness in his own behalf, appellant denied that he possessed any narcotics in his apartment.

¶5*333Appellant’s sole contention on appeal , is that the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction.

¶6Appellant first contends that his conviction cannot be sustained upon proof that he possessed the marihuana seeds because of the absence of any proof that the seeds were viable and capable of germination. In support of his contention, appellant refers to the Federal Statute, sec. 4761 (2), Title 26, U. S. Code Annotated, which, in defining the term “marihuana,” expressly excludes the sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable of germination.

¶7The Uniform Narcotic Drug Act, Art. 725b, supra, in defining a narcotic drug, provides in sec. 1(14) that the same means, among other drugs, “Cannabis,” and in sec. 1(13) provides in part as follows: “The term ‘Cannabis,’ as used in this Act, shall include all parts of the plant Cannabis Sativa L., whether growing or not, the seeds thereof, . The term ‘Cannabis’ shall include those varieties of Cannabis known as Marihuana, Hashish, and Hashoesh.” The act, in defining a narcotic drug, clearly includes the seed of a marihuana plant and makes no distinction between viable and sterilized seed of the plant. The contention is overruled.

¶8Appellant next contends that his conviction cannot be sustained upon proof that he possessed the 35 particles of marihuana because the evidence shows that the particles, by themselves, were not of sufficient quantity to make a marihuana cigarette and therefore was not an amount sufficient to be applied to the use commonly made thereof. Reliance is had upon Pelham v. State, 164 Tex. Cr. R. 226, 298 S. W. 2d 171, where the rule was laid down by this court that to constitute unlawful posession of marihuana under Art. 725b, supra, there must be possessed an amount sufficient to be applied to the use commonly made thereof.

¶9While the . proof does show that the particles of marihuana were insufficient, by themselves, to make a marihuana cigarette, the proof does show that the particles together with the marihuana seeds found in appellant’s apartment were of sufficient quantity to make a cigarette. Under such proof the marihuana shown to have been possessed by appellant was an amount sufficient to be applied to the use commonly made thereof.

¶10We find the evidence sufficient to meet the requirement of the rule laid down in the Pelham case, supra, and to support appel*334lant’s conviction for unlawfully possessing a narcotic drug in violation of Art. 725b, supra.

¶11The judgment is affirmed.

¶12Opinion approved by the Court.

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