I smoke lots of cigars, and it is well known that while Cuban cigars are illegal to buy/sell becuase of the embargo with cuba, cigars bought before the embargo (i.e. “pre-embargo” cuban cigars) are perfectly legal to sell, buy, etc anywhere in the US. This, of course, is because of the no ex post facto provision in the US constitution. Okay that makes perfect sense. But I was thinking…what if I had purchased/manufactured heroin, cocaine, pot… etc before it was made a controlled substance? If i could prove that I did indeed own it before it was made illegal, would it be a violation of the ex post facto provision in the constitution for the government to prevent me from selling “pre-controlled substance” drugs? Or from buying them from a person who owns drugs made before all of the controlled-substance laws? Another way to frame this question is to ask what happened to all the liquor people had right before prohibition went into effect? Was all of that liquor still legal to buy and sell, and only liquor made AFTER prohibition was illegal?
Note: i’m just curious about this situation, i dont really have any old drugs nor do i intend to buy any (new OR old).
I think the difference is that no law has ever made possession of Cuban cigars illegal; to quote the U.S. Customs Service, “persons returning from Cuba after a licensed visit there are permitted to bring Cuban cigars into the United States, provided the value of such cigars does not exceed $100 US dollars and the cigars are for that individuals personal use and not for resale” but “it is…illegal for U.S. persons to buy, sell, trade, or otherwise engage in transactions involving illegally-imported Cuban cigars”. With illegal drugs, on the other hand, possession is generally outlawed (for example, Georgia Code 16-13-2). (“Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, any person who is charged with possession of marijuana, which possession is of one ounce or less, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by imprisonment for a period not to exceed 12 months or a fine not to exceed $1,000.00, or both, or public works not to exceed 12 months.”) It would be an ex post facto law if they outlawed possession of some substance, effective midnight tonight, and then arrested you because you’d had some yesterday; but if you didn’t get rid of the stuff before the deadline, you would be breaking the law.
I should have noted in that post that I am not a lawyer. If I’m wrong in that analysis (or even if I’m right, for that matter), a lawyer will probably be along presently to clarify matters.
from my understanding though, the government didnt make sale/possession of pre-embargo cuban cigars illegal because that would be unconstitutional. In other words… if i buy something today legally, they cant make a law tomorrow saying what i own today is now illegal and punish me for having something that was legal when i got it. Wouldn’t that be an illegal ‘taking’ of property as well as ex post facto violation? I dunno, I take constitutional law next semester
First, I would have serious doubts as to the quality smoking experience offered by a 38-year-old cigar.
As for alcohol prohibition, I once saw a copy of the Volstead Act and it said that after a certain date any liquor possessed would be presumed to have been obtained illegally, or at least that the burden would rest thereafter on the owner to show that it had not been illegally obtained. The object was apparently to allow adequate time for pre-Prohibition liquor to be used or otherwise disposed of. I’ve heard conflicting information from oldtimers about the nuances of the law. My father, who was a small boy at the time (b. 1924) says that it was legal to
make wine for personal use, but I’ve heard elsewhere that it wasn’t. And some states did prohibit possession.
wrt drugs, I think an interesting example might be a collection of old pharmacy bottles. Conceivably one might
have an old laudanum jar for its antique or collector value, and said bottle might still have opium traces. I wonder if
the owner of such a bottle would be guilty of possessing drugs? What if the bottle had been passed down over the
generations from the time when laudanum was legal?
