(a) It is an offense for a person to promote methamphetamine manufacture. A person promotes methamphetamine manufacture who:

Attorney's Note

Under the Tennessee Code, punishments for crimes depend on the classification. In the case of this section:
ClassPrisonFine
class D felony2 to 12 yearsup to $5,000
For details, see Tenn. Code § 40-35-111
criminal case

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 39-17-433

  • Distributor: means a person who distributes. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Drug: means :
    (A) Substances recognized as drugs in the United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homeopaths Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Immediate methamphetamine precursor: means ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine, or their salts, isomers or salts of isomers, or any drug or other product that contains a detectable quantity of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine, or their salts, isomers or salts of isomers. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Knowing: means that a person acts knowingly with respect to the conduct or to circumstances surrounding the conduct when the person is aware of the nature of the conduct or that the circumstances exist. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Law enforcement officer: includes a sheriff, sheriff's deputy, and, only for purposes of the enhancement of a crime, a deputy jailer. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Manufacture: means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding, conversion or processing of a controlled substance, either directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of natural origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, and includes any packaging or repackaging of the substance or labeling or relabeling of its container, except that "manufacture" does not include the preparation or compounding of a controlled substance by an individual for the individual's own use or the preparation, compounding, packaging, or labeling of a controlled substance by:
    (A) A practitioner as an incident to administering or dispensing a controlled substance in the course of professional practice. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association or any other legal entity. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Pharmacist: means a licensed pharmacist as defined by the laws of this state, and where the context so requires, the owner of a store or other place of business where controlled substances are compounded or dispensed by a licensed pharmacist. See Tennessee Code 39-17-402
  • Reckless: means that a person acts recklessly with respect to circumstances surrounding the conduct or the result of the conduct when the person is aware of, but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
  • Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
(1) Sells, purchases, acquires, or delivers any chemical, drug, ingredient, or apparatus that can be used to produce methamphetamine, knowing that it will be used to produce methamphetamine, or with reckless disregard of its intended use;
(2) Purchases or possesses more than nine (9) grams of an immediate methamphetamine precursor with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine or deliver the precursor to another person whom they know intends to manufacture methamphetamine, or with reckless disregard of the person’s intent; or
(3) Permits a person to use any structure or real property that the defendant owns or has control of, knowing that the person intends to use the structure to manufacture methamphetamine, or with reckless disregard of the person’s intent.
(b) Expert testimony of a qualified law enforcement officer shall be admissible to establish that a particular chemical, drug, ingredient, or apparatus can be used to produce methamphetamine. For purposes of this testimony, a rebuttable presumption is created that any commercially sold product contains or contained the product that it is represented to contain on its packaging or labels.
(c) Possession of more than fifteen (15) grams of an immediate methamphetamine precursor shall be prima facie evidence of intent to violate this section. This subsection (c) shall not apply to the following persons or entities that lawfully possess drug products in the course of legitimate business activities:

(1) A pharmacy or pharmacist licensed by the board of pharmacy;
(2) A wholesale drug distributor, or its agents, licensed by the board of pharmacy;
(3) A manufacturer of drug products, or its agents, licensed by the board of pharmacy; and
(4) A licensed health care professional possessing the drug products in the course of carrying out the health care provider’s profession.
(d) For purposes of this section, “structure” means any house, apartment building, shop, barn, warehouse, building, vessel, railroad car, cargo container, motor vehicle, housecar, trailer, trailer coach, camper, mine, floating home, watercraft, or any other structure capable of holding a clandestine laboratory.
(e)

(1) If the chemical, drug, ingredient, or apparatus to produce methamphetamine is purchased in violation of subdivision (a)(1) in more than one (1) county, venue for purposes of prosecution under this section is proper in any county in which such an item was purchased.
(2) If immediate methamphetamine precursors are purchased in violation of subdivision (a)(2) in more than one (1) county, venue for purposes of prosecution under this section is proper in any county in which a precursor was purchased.
(f) A violation of this section is a Class D felony.
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