Montana’s Supreme Court referenced the 1983 Al Pacino film Scarface in a dismissal of a defendant’s motion. He argued for his state charges to be dropped on the grounds of double jeopardy violations. The court didn’t agree.
“’Don’t get high on your own supply’ is a long-established rule of the drug trade specifically because such conduct is inconsistent with the criminal objective of distributing drugs for profit,” Justice James Jeremiah Shea wrote. “To that rule, we now add the legal caveat: ‘Don’t get high on your own supply, ’cause double jeopardy don’t apply.'”
Shea added a footnote, showing that he grabbed the quote from Scarface, and two times it was referenced in pop culture: The Notorious B.I.G song “Ten Crack Commandments,” and an episode of HBO’s The Wire.
He also added another footnote: “…Grammar intentionally sacrificed at the altar of poetic license.”
The defendant, Bruce Anthony Glass, was charged for possession of methamphetamine, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia by state officials and convicted for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in a federal court. After his conviction, Glass moved to drop the state-based charges, arguing that because he had already been convicted by a federal court, the state could not pursue the drug possession charges. In response, the court referenced the long-established drug dealing principle. The court affirmed that trafficking drugs and possessing drugs were two separate crimes, and thus double jeopardy did not apply.
[Screengrab via Scarface]
