State of Tennessee v. Tarik Thompson

A Shelby County jury convicted the Defendant, Tarik Thompson, of two counts of unlawful possession of dihydrocodeinone, a schedule III drug. The trial court merged the offenses, assessed a two thousand dollar fine, and sentenced the Defendant to eighteen months in the workhouse as a range one offender. On appeal, the Defendant contends: (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain the Defendant’s conviction for one of the two counts of unlawful possession of dihydrocodeinone; and (2) the trial court committed plain error by failing to instruct the jury on the valid prescription exception to the offense of simple possession of dihydrocodeinone. After a thorough review of the record and relevant authorities, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.