Coleman

Coleman, defendant in the District Court, was convicted under a count of an indictment which, after the formal parts, charged that he did “unlawfully and feloniously sell, barter, exchange, and give away to one Ira Curtis a certain quantity of a certain preparation and -derivative of opium, to wit, one package of morphine, approximately four grains, and did then and there soil, barter, exchange, and give away said quantity of morphine without, and not in pursuance of a written order of the said Ira Curtis on a form issued in blank ford-hat purpose by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue of the United States.” The count was based upon section 2 of the Act of Congress of December 17, 1914 ( 38 Stat. 785 [Comp. St. § 6287h]), which provides that “it shall he unlawful for any person to sell, barter, exchange, or give away any of the aforesaid drugs except in pursuance of a written order of the person to whom such article is sold, bartered, exchanged, or given, on a form to be issued in blank for that purpose by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.”

The evidence of the government was that about April, 1921, a government narcotic inspector, with a government agent and Ira Curtis, went…