Defendant’s entry into a pharmacy with the intent to obtain drugs by using a forged prescription is not misdemeanor shoplifting. Brown pleaded guilty to second degree burglary (Pen. Code, § 459) for her 2013 entry into a pharmacy with the intent to obtain drugs by using a forged prescription. After Proposition 47 passed, her petition to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor was denied and she appealed. Held: Affirmed. Proposition 47 added section 459.5 to the Penal Code; the misdemeanor offense of shoplifting. Shoplifting is defined as entering a commercial establishment with the intent to commit larceny while that establishment is open during regular business hours where the value of the property taken does not exceed $950. Proposition 47 also added section 1170.18, which provides a procedure whereby qualified defendants may petition to reduce eligible felonies to misdemeanors. The gravamen of Brown’s conviction for second degree burglary did not involve an intent to steal because she appeared at the pharmacy to pay for and collect the filled prescription, i.e., to obtain drugs by means of a forged prescription (Health & Saf. Code, § 11368), which is not larceny.

The full opinion is available on the court’s website here: http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/A147671.PDF