Missouri fines the keeper of a place for smoking hasheesh

Missouri’s 1889 revised statutes made it a misdemeanor to keep a place for smoking hasheesh.^[1] The same section covered opium and any other deadly drug. A keeper was to be fined at least 100 dollars and at most 1,000.^[1] The state supreme court upheld the section in 1897, in a St. Louis case about opium.^[1]

The section the court quotes

Section 3874 said that every person who set up, maintained, opened or kept any house, room or place, to be used for smoking opium, hasheesh or any other deadly drug, was the keeper of an opium den.^[1] On conviction that person was guilty of a misdemeanor. The fine was not less than 100 dollars and not more than 1,000.^[1] The opinion sets the text out as the revised statutes of 1889. It does not give the day those statutes took effect.

The St. Louis prosecution

On 27 January 1896 an information was filed in the St. Louis court of criminal correction against Leo Lee.^[1] It charged that on 26 January 1896 he unlawfully set up, maintained and kept a house and rooms at number 19 Eighth Street, to be used for smoking opium, and that the rooms were used for that purpose.^[1] The charge uses the statute’s words for opium. It does not mention hasheesh. Hasheesh is in the section the court quotes, in the same list as opium.^[1]

On 30 January 1896 Lee asked the court to quash the information.^[1] He said it stated no offence, and that the statute was unconstitutional: that it interfered with rights guaranteed by the United States and Missouri constitutions, that it was class legislation in restraint of trade, that it denied equal protection, and that opium was a medicine rather than a deadly drug.^[1] The trial court agreed, quashed the information and discharged him. The state appealed.^[1]

What the supreme court decided

On 19 January 1897 Judge Burgess, with Judges Gantt and Sherwood concurring, reversed that discharge and sent the case back for trial.^[1] The court said the information was substantially in the language of the statute and charged an offence, unless the statute itself was invalid.^[1] It held that forbidding an opium den was within the state’s police power, for public morals, health and safety, and that the law was not class legislation because it applied to any person who kept such a place.^[1] It also said the section did not stop opium being disposed of as a medicine. It forbade keeping a place where opium was smoked as an intoxicant.^[1] Lee was not represented in the supreme court, so the judges said they had no argument from him to answer.^[1]

Wisconsin’s 1862 sales law is the nearest earlier state control in this record. The national score still begins with the state bans of 1913. Missouri’s current account is on its state page.