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258 Ark. 528

Curry v. State

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided September 15, 1975

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1975-09-15

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““Deliver” or “delivery” means the actual, constructive, or attempted transfer from one person to another of a controlled substance in exchange for money or anything of value, whether or not there is an agency relationship.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Anderson v. State

“The act [of delivery] is condemned any time the transfer is “in exchange for money or anything of value.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Anderson v. State

Relies on United States v. Pruitt

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1975-09-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently September 2020

12 state decisions

40197519801990200020102020decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Conley Byrd, Justice.

¶1A jury convicted appellant John Henry Curry of delivering a controlled substance (marijuana) and fixed his punishment at five years in the penitentiary. For reversal he contends that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict.

¶2The record shows that P. J. Randall, an undercover police officer, casually met appellant in a bar and asked him if he knew where Randall could “cop a lid”. When appellant replied that he did, Randall slipped appellant SI5 and appellant left on his bicycle. When appellant returned he gave Randall a “lid” of marijuana. Thereafter, the two of them and appellant’s girl friend smoked a marijuana cigarette. On cross-examination Randall admitted that he already knew the price of a “lid” and that there was no discussion as to price with the appellant.

¶3Our Controlled Substance Act, Ark. Stat. Ann. § 82-2601(f) [Supp. 1973], provides:

“ ‘Deliver’ or ‘delivery’ means the actual, construetive, or attempted transfer from one person to another of a controlled substance in exchange for money or anything of value, whether or not there is an agency relationship.”

¶4Appellant argues that the foregoing definition does not contemplate a situation, such as here, in which an undercover policeman furnishes the money and induces one to go get a controlled drug. We cannot agree with appellant’s contention. See United States v. Pruitt, 487 F.2d 1241 (8th Cir. 1973). Thus, as we read the definition set out above, it makes no difference, on a motion for directed verdict, whether the transferor acts as an agent of the purchaser or the seller. The act is condemned anytime the transfer is “in exchange for money or anything of value.”

¶5Affirmed.

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