State v. Ellison

*440NEWBY, Justice.

This case presents the question whether N.C.G.S. § 90-95(h)(4) of the North Carolina Controlled Substances Act, N.C.G.S. §§ 90-86 to -113.8 (2011), applies in cases involving prescription pharmaceutical tablets and pills. Subdivision 90-95(h)(4), the opium trafficking statute, explicitly provides that a defendant’s criminal liability shall be based on the total weight of the mixture involved. Because tablets and pills are mixtures, we conclude that defendants were properly sentenced under the opium trafficking statute. Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Appeals is…