PEOPLE v. HOUSTON (2020)

Judgment of conviction (Nicholas W. Moyne, J.), rendered March 21, 2019, affirmed.

The information was not jurisdictionally defective. Allegations that defendant was observed smoking a cigarette containing synthetic marijuana and that the officer concluded that the substance was synthetic marijuana based on his professional training as a police officer in the identification of synthetic marijuana, his prior experience as a police officer making arrests involving synthetic marijuana, and his observation of the packaging, "which is characteristic of synthetic marijuana" (see People v. Kalin, 12 NY3d 225, 231-232 [2009]; People v. Dumas, 68 NY2d 729 [1986]) were legally sufficient to charge defendant with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree (see People v. Miller, 65 Misc 3d 159[A], 2019 NY Slip Op 52006[U][App Term, 1st Dept 2019], lv denied 34 NY3d 1161 [2020]). Defendant's present contention that the contents of the cigarette were not an illegal substance was a matter to be raised as a defense at trial, not by insistence that the accusatory instrument was defective (see People v. Smalls, 26 NY3d 1064, 1067 [2015]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.

Per Curiam.

I concur