2023 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 21a - Consumer Protection
Chapter 420b - Dependency-Producing Drugs
Section 21a-278a. - Penalty for illegal manufacture, distribution, sale, prescription or administration.
(a) Any person eighteen years of age or older who violates section 21a-277 or 21a-278, and who is not, at the time of such action, a drug-dependent person, by distributing, selling, prescribing, dispensing, offering, giving or administering any controlled substance to another person who is under eighteen years of age and is at least two years younger than such person who is in violation of section 21a-277 or 21a-278, shall be imprisoned for a term of two years, which shall not be suspended and shall be in addition and consecutive to any term of imprisonment imposed for violation of section 21a-277 or 21a-278.
(b) Any person who violates section 21a-277 or 21a-278 by manufacturing, distributing, selling, prescribing, dispensing, compounding, transporting with the intent to sell or dispense, possessing with the intent to sell or dispense, offering, giving or administering to another person any controlled substance with intent to commit such violation at a specific location that the trier of fact determines is (1) in or on the real property comprising a (A) public or private elementary or secondary school, (B) public housing project, or (C) licensed child care center, as defined in section 19a-77, that is identified as a child care center by a sign posted in a conspicuous place, or (2) within two hundred feet of the perimeter of the real property comprising such (A) public or private elementary or secondary school, (B) public housing project, or (C) licensed child care center, shall be imprisoned for a term of three years, which shall not be suspended and shall be in addition and consecutive to any term of imprisonment imposed for violation of section 21a-277 or 21a-278. To constitute a violation of this subsection, an act of transporting or possessing a controlled substance shall be with intent to sell or dispense in or on, or within two hundred feet of the perimeter of, the real property comprising a public or private elementary or secondary school, a public housing project or a licensed child care center, as defined in section 19a-77, that is identified as a child care center by a sign posted in a conspicuous place. For the purposes of this subsection, “public housing project” means dwelling accommodations operated as a state or federally subsidized multifamily housing project by a housing authority, nonprofit corporation or municipal developer, as defined in section 8-39, pursuant to chapter 128 or by the Connecticut Housing Authority pursuant to chapter 129.
(c) Any person who employs, hires, uses, persuades, induces, entices or coerces a person under eighteen years of age to violate section 21a-277 or 21a-278 shall be imprisoned for a term of three years, which shall not be suspended and shall be in addition and consecutive to any term of imprisonment imposed for violation of section 21a-277 or 21a-278.
(P.A. 87-373, S. 3; P.A. 89-256, S. 1; P.A. 92-82; P.A. 94-233, S. 1; P.A. 15-227, S. 25; P.A. 21-102, S. 23.)
History: P.A. 89-256 amended Subsec. (b) to increase the additional, nonsuspendable term of imprisonment from 2 to 3 years for the illegal sale of controlled substances near school grounds and amended Subsec. (c) to increase the additional, nonsuspendable term of imprisonment from 2 to 3 years for using a minor to commit drug offenses; P.A. 92-82 amended Subsec. (b) to increase the proximity distance to school property from 1,000 to 1,500 feet, to make the enhanced penalty applicable to transactions in or near a public housing project and to define “public housing project”; P.A. 94-233 amended Subsec. (b) to remove the exception for drug-dependent persons and make the enhanced penalty applicable to transactions in or near a licensed child day care center that is identified as a child day care center by a sign posted in a conspicuous place; pursuant to P.A. 15-227, “child day care center” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “child care center” in Subsec. (b), effective July 1, 2015; P.A. 21-102 amended Subsec. (b) by replacing “in or on, or within one thousand five hundred feet of,” with “with intent to commit such violation at a specific location that the trier of fact determines is (1) in or on”, designating existing language re schools as Subsec. (b)(1)(A), designating existing language re public housing projects as Subsec. (b)(1)(B), designating existing language re licensed child care centers as Subsec. (b)(1)(C), adding Subsecs. (c)(2)(A), (B) and (C) re a specific location within 200 feet of the perimeter of such a property and replacing 1500 feet with 200 feet of the perimeter of the real property.
