People v. Murphy

Defendant appeals from an order finding him to be a person “in imminent danger of becoming addicted to narcotics ’ ’ and committing him to the custody of the Director of Corrections for placement in the narcotics addict rehabilitation program. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 3051.)

We are once again called upon to resolve difficult questions concerning the manner and scope of review of narcotics addiction commitment proceedings. The statutory scheme (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 3000-3305) provides little guidance in this respect, and in a series of decisions we have therefore undertaken to delineate the…