Keeping or maintaining a public nuisance
It is a crime to knowingly run or keep a place that is used to illegally make, store, sell, or hand out drugs. It is also a crime to keep a place where groups of people gathered three or more times in a year mainly to illegally use drugs. This is a class E felony, and if the owner is convicted, the property can be taken away by the government.
Classifications stated in the statute. Actual outcomes vary.
579.105. Keeping or maintaining a — violation, . — 1. A person commits the of keeping or maintaining a public nuisance if he or she keeps or maintains:
(1) Any room, building, structure or , as defined in section 556.061, which is used for the illegal , distribution, storage, or sale of any amount of a , except thirty-five grams or less of marijuana or thirty-five grams or less of any ; or
(2) Any room, building, structure or inhabitable structure, as defined in section 556.061, where on three or more separate occasions within the period of a year, two or more persons, who were not residents of the room, building, structure, or inhabitable structure, gathered for the purpose of ingesting, injecting, inhaling or using any amount of a controlled substance, except thirty-five grams or less of marijuana or thirty-five grams or less of any synthetic cannabinoid.
2. In addition to any other criminal prosecutions, the or may by charge the owner or the occupant, or both the owner and the occupant of the room, building, structure, or inhabitable structure with the offense of keeping or maintaining a public nuisance.
3. The offense of keeping or maintaining a public nuisance is a .
4. Upon the of the owner this section, the room, building, structure, or inhabitable structure is subject to the of sections 513.600 to 513.645.
(RSMo 1939 § 9844, A.L. 1971 H.B. 69, A.L. 1985 H.B. 488, A.L. 1989 H.B. 479, A.L. 2014 S.B. 491, A.L. 2014 H.B. 1371)
Transferred 2014; formerly 195.130; Effective 1-01-17
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Legal information, not legal advice. Always confirm with the official source at revisor.mo.gov.