Sec. 21a-278a. Penalty for illegal manufacture, distribution, sale, prescription or administration.
Sec. 21a-278a. Penalty for illegal manufacture, distribution, sale, prescription
or administration. (a) Any person eighteen years of age or older who violates section
21a-277 or 21a-278, and who is not, at the time of such action, a drug-dependent person,
by distributing, selling, prescribing, dispensing, offering, giving or administering any
controlled substance to another person who is under eighteen years of age and is at least
two years younger than such person who is in violation of section 21a-277 or 21a-278,
shall be imprisoned for a term of two years, which shall not be suspended and shall be
in addition and consecutive to any term of imprisonment imposed for violation of section
21a-277 or 21a-278.
(b) Any person who violates section 21a-277 or 21a-278 by manufacturing, distributing, selling, prescribing, dispensing, compounding, transporting with the intent to sell
or dispense, possessing with the intent to sell or dispense, offering, giving or administering to another person any controlled substance in or on, or within one thousand five
hundred feet of, the real property comprising a public or private elementary or secondary
school, a public housing project or a licensed child day care center, as defined in section
19a-77, that is identified as a child day care center by a sign posted in a conspicuous
place shall be imprisoned for a term of three years, which shall not be suspended and
shall be in addition and consecutive to any term of imprisonment imposed for violation
of section 21a-277 or 21a-278. To constitute a violation of this subsection, an act of
transporting or possessing a controlled substance shall be with intent to sell or dispense
in or on, or within one thousand five hundred feet of, the real property comprising a
public or private elementary or secondary school, a public housing project or a licensed
child day care center, as defined in section 19a-77, that is identified as a child day care
center by a sign posted in a conspicuous place. For the purposes of this subsection,
"public housing project" means dwelling accommodations operated as a state or federally subsidized multifamily housing project by a housing authority, nonprofit corporation or municipal developer, as defined in section 8-39, pursuant to chapter 128 or by
the Connecticut Housing Authority pursuant to chapter 129.
(c) Any person who employs, hires, uses, persuades, induces, entices or coerces a
person under eighteen years of age to violate section 21a-277 or 21a-278 shall be imprisoned for a term of three years, which shall not be suspended and shall be in addition
and consecutive to any term of imprisonment imposed for violation of section 21a-277
or 21a-278.
(P.A. 87-373, S. 3; P.A. 89-256, S. 1; P.A. 92-82; P.A. 94-233, S. 1.)
History: P.A. 89-256 amended Subsec. (b) to increase the additional, nonsuspendable term of imprisonment from 2 to
3 years for the illegal sale of controlled substances near school grounds and amended Subsec. (c) to increase the additional,
nonsuspendable term of imprisonment from 2 to 3 years for using a minor to commit drug offenses; P.A. 92-82 amended
Subsec. (b) to increase the proximity distance to school property from 1,000 to 1,500 feet, to make the enhanced penalty
applicable to transactions in or near a public housing project and to define "public housing project"; P.A. 94-233 amended
Subsec. (b) to remove the exception for drug-dependent persons and make the enhanced penalty applicable to transactions
in or near a licensed child day care center that is identified as a child day care center by a sign posted in a conspicuous place.
See Sec. 21a-283a re authority of court to depart from prescribed mandatory minimum sentence.
Cited. 32 CA 724. Cited. 35 CA 609. Evidence that was sufficient to prove violation of Sec. 21a-278 was, in this case,
sufficient to prove violation of this section. 85 CA 575.
Subsec. (a):
Cited. 20 CA 694.
Subsec. (b):
Cited. 231 C. 941. Cited. 235 C. 477. Cited. 239 C. 427. Cited. 241 C. 650.
Cited. 38 CA 621. Cited. 42 CA 500; Id., 537; judgment reversed, see 241 C. 650; Id., 640. Cited. 43 CA 339. Is a
separate substantive offense from Sec. 21a-278(b). 58 CA 592. Legislature intended possession with intent to sell within
1500 feet of school and sale within 1500 feet of school to be separate crimes. 66 CA 118. Evidence presented, i.e. testimony
of expert witness that distance between school and boundary line of property on which the sale of narcotics took place was
1430 feet and a photograph of the property with the point of sale indicated, was sufficient to support jury's finding that
sale of narcotics was within 1500 feet of property on which a public elementary school was located. 67 CA 643. Does not
require use of certain language to meet requirement of being "identified as a child day care center by a sign posted in a
conspicuous place"; whether a posted sign satisfies statute is a question of fact. 70 CA 255. Conviction for conspiracy to
sell a controlled substance to within 1500 feet of a public housing project reversed where trial court instructed that jury
must find that conspiracy occurred within 1500 feet of public housing project. The law is not concerned with where the
plan was hatched, but with where the conspirators proposed to carry out its unlawful purpose. 73 CA 386. Trial court
properly determined that defendant possessed narcotics with intent to sell within 1500 feet of a school where defendant,
upon being confronted by police, transferred drugs to a passenger in a motor vehicle. Defendant's actual transfer of drugs
to the passenger was in and of itself evidence of intent to sell. 101 CA 167. Dissenting opinion: Intent to sell, without
evidence of intent to sell at a location within a school zone, is not sufficient to find defendant guilty under statute. Handing
a package of narcotics to a motor vehicle passenger with instructions that she "hold it" was not a sufficient act from which
jury could infer that defendant intended to sell or dispense at that moment. Id.
Subsec. (c):
Cited. 25 CA 21. Cited. 32 CA 831.