United States v. Behrman

Background

A licensed physician wrote three prescriptions that enabled Willie King, a person known to be addicted to morphine, heroin, and cocaine, to obtain very large amounts of those drugs from a pharmacist. The indictment charged specific quantities—150 grains of heroin, 360 grains of morphine, and 210 grains of cocaine—and alleged the drugs were for divided self-use over several days, not administered under the physician’s supervision. The District Judge sustained a demurrer and dismissed the indictment, prompting review.

Reasoning

The Court asked whether such prescriptions fall within the statute’s exception for drugs dispensed in the course of regular medical practice. Relying on earlier cases, the majority explained the exception protects only legitimate medical treatment, not distributions intended to gratify an addict’s craving or supply a dealer. The opinion compared the charged amounts to ordinary doses and emphasized that thousands of ordinary doses were placed in the addict’s control without restraint. The Court held those facts put the prescriptions outside the medical exception and that the indictment sufficiently stated an offense, reversing the District Court.

Real world impact

The ruling makes clear that doctors cannot avoid criminal liability merely by labeling large, untended supplies as prescriptions when they effectively supply addiction. Physicians who give unusually large amounts to known addicts risk prosecution, and prosecutors may bring charges where prescriptions look like supply rather than treatment. This decision narrows the scope of the medical exception under the Narcotic Drug Act.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Holmes, joined by two colleagues, dissented, arguing the indictment alleged prescriptions in the regular course of practice and in good faith, and that the Court should not construe the statute to criminalize such acts without clearer notice.