(a) No person shall knowingly do any of the following:
(1) Sell or offer to sell a controlled substance;
(2) Prepare for shipment, ship, transport, deliver, prepare for distribution, or distribute a controlled substance, when the offender knows or has reasonable cause to believe that the controlled substance is intended for sale or resale by the offender or another person.
(b) This section does not apply to any of the following:
(1) Manufacturers, licensed health professionals authorized to prescribe drugs, pharmacists, owners of pharmacies and other persons whose conduct was in accordance with Ohio R.C. Chapters 3719, 4715, 4729, 4730, 4731 and 4741.
(2) If the offense involves an anabolic steroid, any person who is conducting or participating in a research project involving the use of an anabolic steroid if the project has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
(3) Any person who sells, offers for sale, prescribes, dispenses, or administers for livestock or other nonhuman species an anabolic steroid that is expressly intended for administration through implants to livestock or other nonhuman species and approved for that purpose under the “Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act” (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq., as amended), and is sold, offered for sale, prescribed, dispensed, or administered for that purpose in accordance with that Act.
(c) Whoever violates division (a) of this section is guilty of the following:
(1) Except as otherwise provided in divisions (c)(2) and (c)(3) of this section, trafficking in controlled substances is a felony to be prosecuted under appropriate State law.
(2) If the offense involves a gift of 20 grams or less of marihuana or a compound, mixture, preparation, or substance containing marihuana other than hashish, trafficking in marihuana is a misdemeanor of the first degree.
(3) The court may by order suspend for not more than five years the driver’s or commercial driver’s license or permit of any person who is convicted of or pleads guilty to any violation of this section. However, if the offender pleaded guilty to or was convicted of a violation of Ohio R.C. 4511.19 or a substantially similar municipal ordinance or the law of another state or the United States arising out of the same set of circumstances as the violation, the court shall suspend the offender’s driver’s or commercial driver’s license or permit in accordance with Ohio R.C. 2925.03(G). If an offender’s driver’s or commercial driver’s license or permit is suspended pursuant to this subsection, the offender, at any time after the expiration of two years from the day on which the offender’s sentence was imposed, may file a motion with the sentencing court requesting termination of the suspension; upon the filing of such a motion and the court’s finding of good cause for the termination, the court may terminate the suspension.
(ORC 2925.03)
(d) In addition to any prison term authorized or required by division (c) of this section and Ohio R.C. 2929.13 and 2929.14, and in addition to any other sanction imposed for the offense under this section or Ohio R.C. 2929.11 through 2929.18, the court that sentences a person who is convicted of or pleads guilty to a violation of division (a) of this section shall do all of the following that are applicable regarding the offender:
(1) The court shall suspend for not less than six months nor more than five years the driver’s or commercial driver’s license or permit of any person who is convicted of or has pleaded guilty to a violation of this section.
(2) If the offender is a professionally licensed person the court immediately shall comply with Ohio R.C. 2925.38.
(e) (1) Notwithstanding any contrary provision of Ohio R.C. 3719.21 and except as provided in Ohio R.C. 2925.03(H), the Clerk of the Court shall pay any mandatory fine imposed pursuant to this section and any fine other than a mandatory fine that is imposed for a violation of this section pursuant to Ohio R.C. 2929.18(A) or (B)(5) to the County, Township, Municipality, park district, as created pursuant to Ohio R.C. 511.18 or 1545.04, or state law enforcement agencies in this State that primarily were responsible for or involved in making the arrest of, and in prosecuting, the offender. However, the Clerk shall not pay a mandatory fine so imposed to a law enforcement agency unless the agency has adopted a written internal control policy under division (e)(2) of this section that addresses the use of the fine moneys that it receives. Each agency shall use the mandatory fines so paid to subsidize the agency’s law enforcement efforts that pertain to drug offenses, in accordance with the written internal control policy adopted by the recipient agency under division (e)(2) of this section.
(2) A. Prior to receiving any fine moneys under division (e)(1) of this section or Ohio R.C. 2925.42(B)(5), a law enforcement agency shall adopt a written internal control policy that addresses the agency’s use and disposition of all fine moneys so received and that provides for the keeping of detailed financial records of the receipts of those fine moneys, the general types of expenditures made out of those fine moneys, and the specific amount of each general type of expenditure. The policy shall not provide for or permit the identification of any specific expenditure that is made in an on-going investigation. All financial records of the receipts of those fine moneys, the general type of expenditures made out of those fine moneys, and the specific amount of each general type of expenditure by an agency are public records open for inspection under Ohio R.C. 149.43. Additionally, a written internal control policy adopted under this division is such a public record, and the agency that adopted it shall comply with it.
B. Each law enforcement agency that receives in any calendar year any fine moneys under division (e)(1) of this section or Ohio R.C. 2925.42(B)(5) shall prepare a report covering the calendar year that cumulates all of the information contained in all of the public financial records kept by the agency pursuant to division (e)(2)A. of this section for that calendar year, and shall send a copy of the cumulative report, no later than the first day of March in the calendar year following the calendar year covered by the report, to the Attorney General. Each report received by the Attorney General is a public record open for inspection under Ohio R.C. 149.43.
(3) As used in division (e) of this section:
A. “Law enforcement agencies” includes, but is not limited to, the State Board of Pharmacy and the office of a prosecutor.
B. “Prosecutor” has the same meaning as in Ohio R.C. 2935.01.
(ORC 2925.03)
Statutory reference:
Felony drug trafficking offenses, see Ohio R.C. 2925.03(C)