In Re Goldie

[342]

CHIPMAN, P. J.

It appears from the petition that petitioner was on June 21, 1917, committed to the Napa State Hospital for the Insane for the term of one year upon the charge laid under section 2185c of the Political Code, that she was at that time addicted to the use of narcotics and drugs. It is alleged that petitioner “has entirely recovered and been cured of the use of narcotics and drugs,” and that she is now being held in said institution “because of the fact that she is suffering from some blood trouble which, even if true, would not entitle the said medical superintendent to detain or restrain said Esther Goldie of her liberty.”

A general demurrer was filed by the attorney-general, as also a return to the petition. The point raised .by the demurrer is that petitioner has failed to pursue the proper remedy provided by law; that the statute relating to matters of this kind provides a special procedure for the patient which is the only remedy permitted her by statute to gain her freedom, and not having followed those provisions, she is not entitled at this time to be heard in this court upon the petition now pending, and that petitioner must first exhaust the specific remedy prescribed by law before she can invoke the assistance of

habeas corpus.

Reliance is placed upon section 2189 of the Political Code as amended in 1915 (Stats. 1915, p. 568).

Section 2189 deals exclusively with the insane, and provides the method by which persons committed for insanity may be discharged. Section 2185c relates entirely to persons “so far addicted to the intemperate use of narcotics or stimulants as to have lost the power of self-control, or is subject to dipsomania or inebriety,” etc. The concluding paragraph of section 2185c reads as follows: “The court shall commit such person for a definite period, not to exceed two years, but provided that he may be paroled by the medical superintendent under the same rules and conditions that the insane are paroled; and provided, further, that the state commission in lunacy shall be given the same power, to discharge any person committed under this act as contained in section 2189 of the Political Code, upon the recommendation of the hospital superintendent, when satisfied that such person will not receive substantial benefit from further hospital treatment.”