Supreme Court rules drugs must be genuine

The court threw out a 28-month to 72-month sentence imposed on Christopher Douglas Paige in 1998 for selling two rocks of cocaine for $20 to an undercover Las Vegas police officer.

Paige told the officer the substance was "good coke," but later tests showed it wasn't cocaine. Its exact composition couldn't be determined.

Nevada law "requires the existence of an actual controlled substance in order to sustain a conviction for offering to sell a controlled substance," the court ruled.

archive