State v. Herrera

The decision of the majority today makes the penalties for repeated trafficking in heroin and possession of eight ounces of marijuana the same. This result is clearly not what the legislature intended. Indeed, the whole legislative scheme of varied penalties depending upon the seriousness of the offense and the dangerousness of the drug has been abrogated. The reason is apparently because the term “second degree felony” is not defined in the correct volume of our code. It is this type of “judicial legislation” by technicality which is to be avoided.

The major issue involved in this appeal is…