State v. Hurtt
| Decision Date | 11 January 2023 |
| Docket Number | 22-0091 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DARRYL ANTHONY HURTT, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Court of Appeals |
STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
DARRYL ANTHONY HURTT, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 22-0091
Court of Appeals of Iowa
January 11, 2023
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Clarke County, Thomas P. Murphy, Judge.
On interlocutory appeal, Darryl Hurtt challenges the district court's denial of his motion to dismiss the charge of possession of marijuana.
Aaron D. Hamrock of McCarthy & Hamrock, P.C., West Des Moines, for appellant.
Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Timothy M. Hau, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Badding, JJ.
BOWER, CHIEF JUDGE.
Darryl Hurtt, a commercial truck driver from Missouri, appeals the denial of his motion to dismiss the charge of possession of a controlled substance (marijuana), claiming a violation of his right to freely travel through the State of Iowa. The Iowa Supreme court granted Hurtt's application for interlocutory appeal and transferred the case to this court. We are not persuaded Iowa's regulation of controlled substances directly impairs Hurtt's right to come into or leave the state. We affirm the denial of his motion to dismiss.
Background Facts.
On September 8, 2021, Hurtt was driving a commercial truck and pulled into a weigh station for a weight violation. Officer Justin Brown was on duty and met Hurtt in the rear parking area of the scale. After obtaining consent from Hurtt, Officer Brown stepped onto the passenger-side step of the truck and detected an odor of marijuana coming from Hurtt's truck. Officer Brown asked Hurtt "where the weed was in the cab." Hurtt produced a small burnt blunt containing a green leafy substance. The officer asked where the rest was located, and Hurttproduced a glasses case containing three additional blunts containing a green leafy substance.
Officer Brown asked Hurtt what the green leafy substance was, and Hurtt replied that it was marijuana he had acquired from a dispensary in Missouri using his medicinal marijuana card. He had his Missouri medicinal marijuana card on his person and stated he only had the amount of marijuana prescribed to him.
Officer Brown placed Hurtt under arrest, and he was charged with first-offense
possession of a schedule I controlled substance-marijuana, in violation of Iowa Code section 124.401(5) (2021).[1]
Hurtt moved to dismiss the trial information, alleging his "medicinal prescription requires him to bring his medication with him due to the circumstances of his profession and not being home every night"; his "right to freely travel, if unable to carry his medicinal marijuana through other states, would be violated"; he "had in his possession only the amount of marijuana prescribed to him"; he "was traveling through and not intending to reside in Iowa"; and given his "rights to freely travel and take part in interstate commerce, the abovementioned charges should be dismissed." The court ordered the parties to file memoranda of authority, which they did. Hurtt asserted his right to travel freely between states had been infringed:
The burden placed upon [Hurtt] is to either choose a different occupation and potentially be out of a job or to choose not to partake in medicine that was prescribed to him by a medical doctor. [Hurtt] should [not] have to decide which is more important to him, he wishes to have both of those privileges when he is simply driving through a state which is his constitutional right.
There was no hearing on the motion to dismiss, and no testimony, affidavits, or exhibits were presented.[2] The court took the matter under advisement.
The trial court appears to have accepted Hurtt's allegations as true. In its ruling, the court thoroughly discussed the statutes and case law concerning the right to travel and Iowa's regulations concerning marijuana. The court noted Iowa allows use of particular products of medical cannabidiol, but Hurtt "did not possess any of these four products." Rather, Hurtt "possessed 'blunts' that are used by smoking." The court noted Iowa law specifically prohibits smoking medical cannabidiol.
The court recognized federal case law concerning the "right to go from one place to another" and stated the the question was "whether the law criminalizing possession of marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance infringes one's right to travel."
Iowa does not recognize a prescription or otherwise valid certification obtained legally from another state for any other form or substance derived from marijuana. The Act also requires that "[m]edical cannabidiol provided exclusively pursuant to a written certification of a health care practitioner, if not legally available in this state or from any other bordering state, shall be obtained from an out-of-state source." Iowa Code § 124E.13.
Based on the foregoing discussions and analysis, it is clear that pursuant to the current law in Iowa and the federal government's continued classification of marijuana...
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