Articles Posted in Drugs

A former Florida college student’s decision to speak with a detective regarding two alleged sexual assaults he allegedly committed at a party the night before will be used against him in court.

Initially, the trial court granted a defense motion to suppress those statements, meaning they couldn’t be used in court, on the grounds the detective failed to respond appropriately to the defendant’s question of, “Can you just tell me if I need a lawyer or something?” Now, that decision has been reversed by Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal in Florida v. Parker.

Here’s a tip: If you ever are in doubt about whether you need a defense lawyer, get one. At least seek a consultation with an attorney. Our Broward County criminal defense lawyers know no good ever comes from a suspect asking a law enforcement officer for legal advice.
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Drug-free zone laws in Florida are designed to make children and communities safer by limiting sales of illegal substances near schools, daycare centers, parks and churches. Per Florida Statute Section 893.13(1)(e), those caught selling certain narcotics within 1,000 feet of such facilities could face penalty enhancements. In some cases, it may be considered a first-degree felony, accompanied by a minimum mandatory 3-year prison sentence, regardless of one’s prior criminal history.

These laws are a holdover of the Reagan-era “War on Drugs,” and some states and municipalities have called for a repeal of these laws, as they are harsh, do little to curb drug crimes and are often applied inequitably. So far, however, our Broward criminal defense lawyers haven’t seen any indication Florida’s legislature intends to do comply.

Still, there are situations under which a “drug-free zone” enhancement can be effectively challenged. A recent example is an appeal before Florida’s 4th DCA of two defendants, tried jointly and convicted, of trafficking oxycodone within 1,000 feet of a church. The cases, Lemaster v. Florida and Wilder v. Florida, stemmed from a November 2011 arrests of two individuals on the first-degree felony charge of possession with intent to sell in, on or within 1,000 feet of a physical place of worship at which church or religious organization regularly conducts religious services. The pair were convicted of this and other charges.
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Acquiring a new paint job on your car isn’t grounds for police officers in Florida to pull you over.

This might seem a common-sense conclusion, but it was one recently decided by the Florida Supreme Court in State v. Teamer, where officers tried to use such logic to justify a stop that ultimately led to a drug trafficking arrest and conviction.

Fort Lauderdale drug defense lawyers see this ruling as an important one in that it narrows the circumstances under which police can claim a legitimate stop based on non-criminal activity.
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It’s been estimated by the Pew Research Center that some 37 percent of Americans – or more than one-third – own a firearm or have a firearm in their home owned by someone else.

While the laws governing their use, sale and storage have become more restricted over the years, the fact remains these weapons are legal. What’s more, our Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorneys know that evidence of gun possession – absent a clear connection to a crime – is not admissible in criminal court to be used against the defendant.

This issue recently arose before Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal in Tolbert v. State, where justices cited the 2011 Florida Supreme Court decision Agatheas v. State as a guide.
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For many college students, dorm life is the first taste of freedom and adulthood. But a dorm room is not exactly like a private residence when it comes to searches.

What you need to understand is that while you are protected against unlawful searches and seizures from police, the school still owns your residence. Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyers encourage students to assert their right to withhold consent for dorm searches, with the understanding that without consent, law enforcement officials generally must have a warrant before searching your room. The school, however, may be allowed to search regardless of your approval.

The case of Medlock v. Trs. of IN Univ. stems from the search of a dorm room that led to the arrest and expulsion of a sophomore. The criminal drug charges were eventually dropped and the student was admitted back to the school.
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Law enforcement has been targeting illicit drug use and sales for a long time now.

But actually profiting?

An explosive, six-month investigation by the Sun-Sentinel revealed that police agencies are literally making millions of dollars by aggressively pursuing drug arrests in Fort Lauderadale and throughout South Florida.
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When U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder stood before the world and promised that his office was committed to curbing “draconian” minimum mandatory sentences for lower-tier drug offenders, it sounded awfully familiar to many Floridians.

For years, a bi-partisan coalition of activists in the state have been trying without success to overhaul Florida’s minimum mandatory drug laws. Our Fort Lauderdale drug crime defense attorneys know that recent analysis shows that a mandatory, three-year drug sentence in the state costs taxpayers nearly $58,500, while a combination of treatment and work release over that same time frame costs less than $20,000.

Crime in Florida is the lowest it’s been in more than four decades. Yet, our prison population continues to balloon with large numbers of first-time offenders, mostly arrested after undercover busts for trafficking in small amounts of drugs.
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Not only are arrests for marijuana possession in Florida astronomically high, they also reveal a stark racial bias, according to a recent report issued by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Our Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorneys understand that while the national average revealed that blacks were four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana-related crimes than their white counterparts – despite equal usage rates – there were places in Florida where blacks were 10 times more likely to face criminal marijuana charges.

Federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I narcotic, highly addictive and with no redeeming medicinal properties. Of course, this classification has been heavily refuted by medical and policy scholars, but as of right now, it remains. Some 18 states have approved it for medicinal use and a number have also decriminalized possession of small amounts for recreational use. However, the sunshine state is among them, and possession of marijuana in Florida, assuming it’s less than 20 grams, is a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail. Possession of anymore than 20 grams of marijuana in Florida is a third-degree felony, punishable by a maximum 5 years in prison. In either case, you will also face a two-year suspension of your driver’s license.

These are serious consequences with the very real potential to destroy a person’s future. And for what? The ACLU points out that between 2001 and 2011, the vast majority of marijuana-related arrests and expenses were related to crimes of possession, as opposed to distribution or trafficking. What’s more, these arrests revealed incredible racial bias that has actually crept upward in recent years.

Nationwide, blacks are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites. Here in Florida, blacks are 4.2 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession.

Put another way, in 2010, there were 866 black people arrested for marijuana possession per population of 100,000. Meanwhile, there were 208 white people per 100,000 arrested for marijuana possession.

The counties with the largest disparities included:
Sarasota (blacks were 10 times more likely to be arrested);
–Martin (9.8 times more likely);
–Pinellas (7.1 times more likely);
–Alachua (6.6 times more likely);
–Nassau (5.9 times more likely).

In Miami-Dade, blacks were 5.4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana crimes. In Broward, they were 3.7 times more likely and in Palm beach County, they were 4.8 times a more likely target.

Prosecutions for marijuana possession in Florida have tapered off only slightly since 2008, but only after rising dramatically from 2001 to 2007.

Arrests for marijuana possession account for 41 percent of all drug arrests in Florida and the state spend nearly $229 million enforcing marijuana possession laws in 2010.

There are numerous defenses our attorneys might employ, depending on your situation. We might argue:
1. Illegal search and seizure (police never had the right to search your property in the first place, and therefore can’t use the evidence found against you);
2. Lack of knowledge (you didn’t know the substance was in your possessions);
3. Constructive possession (the drug was found in a place where more than one person had access, and prosecutors can’t prove it was yours and not the other person’s);
4. Overdose defense (you are immune from prosecution if we can show the drug was only found due to your seeking help for someone experiencing a drug overdose).
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In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Florida Supreme Court’s earlier ruling dismissing all evidence obtained following an erroneous indication of drugs during a traffic stop.

Our Broward criminal defense attorneys are troubled by this precedent, which holds that an indicator from a trained K-9 unit is enough for police to assume probable cause and initiate a search.

The case, Florida v. Harris, stems from what was a seemingly routine stop in which the officer asked for consent of the driver to search the vehicle. The driver refused. The officer responded by having his dog, Aldo, conduct a “sniff” around the exterior of the vehicle. The dog in turn alerted its handler to possible drug residue on the driver’s side door handle. The officer took this as enough of a foundation to establish probable cause and executed a search.

Nothing that the dog was trained to detect was found. However, the officer did find a substance called pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used sometimes to make methamphetamine. Several other ingredients used to make this drug were also found.

The driver was subsequently arrested for illegal possession of those substances.

Later, that same driver was out on bail and he was stopped again – by the same officer. The dog again alerted his handler to a controlled substance and the officer once again searched the vehicle, this time finding nothing.

The lower trial court denied a motion to suppress, but that decision was appealed to the state supreme court, which ruled the evidence was inadmissible. The state high court had ruled that the dog’s previous performance record indicating how many times it had falsely alerted was relevant in the pending criminal case. But this police department – and many others – don’t keep those records. As such, the state court found, probable cause could not appropriately be established.

In overturning that verdict, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the standard to which the dog should be held was “fair probability.” Further, the high court found the state court’s requirement of hit-and-miss documentation was “rigid” and failed to allow for a totality-of-circumstances approach to probable cause. The court further stated that such records may be skewed – either overstating or understating the dog’s accuracy, as those records would not include court case outcomes.

While the totality of circumstances is of course an important factor, what’s also noteworthy is the fact that even well-trained drug dogs get it wrong – sometimes more often than not. Even controlled-settings studies have proven this.

A study published in the George Mason Law Review by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor found that even well-trained K-9 units that do well in controlled testing environments have a high rate of error when it comes to false positives in traffic stops. The reason, based on the Bayesian probability formula, is that the majority of motorists aren’t actually harboring drugs in their vehicle. This ups the chances for a false positive – much more than a false negative.

Still, given the fact that the court drove home the point of totality-of-circumstances, if an officer searches your vehicle on the sole basis of a K-9 indication, there may be a valid case made for why any evidence subsequently uncovered should be suppressed.
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The sales of synthetic marijuana and cocaine products continue to proliferate in South Florida, despite bans at the local, state and federal levels.

That’s according to a recent report by The Sun Sentinel. Our Broward County criminal defense lawyers are well aware of the continuing trend, and remain one step ahead of prosecutors when it comes to defending these cases.

Our greatest advantage at this point is the specificity with which the laws were written. Each of the measures contain language banning certain chemical compounds and anything that is considered “analogue” to those substances. For a substance to be considered “analogue,” it must contain the same active-ingredient chemical make-up.

This might seem fairly straightforward. However, the ingredients of these products are ever-changing. So the successful defense of these cases is going to depend highly on proving that the chemical compounds that comprise the drug in question vary significantly enough from the formally-banned compounds named in the laws.

If you are arrested, this defense could be critical, considering that violation of the state law can result in a third-degree felony charge, punishable by up to five years in prison and those charged federally will face up to 40 years in prison.

A recent local example of this argument involves the compound UR-144. Federal prosecutors taking aim at a former Daytona Beach manufacturer are calling it an analogue substance, akin to the substances that are already illegal. However, the Controlled Substances Act doesn’t specifically name UR-144.

The chemical was found in packets of herbal incense called Dead Man Walking. But when the drug was tested by an independent lab in Miami, scientists questioned whether it was actually similar enough to formally outlawed substances be grouped in the same category. The case has yet to go to trial, though it is being closely watched by others in the industry.

The UR-144 compound is now illegal under Florida law, per an emergency order signed in December by the attorney general. However, that measure isn’t applicable to the pending case, as it passed after the defendant’s arrest.

Of course, those in the industry need to recognize the risk they may be taking. Part of the problem is that the laws are being interpreted by the federal government. As we’ve seen with the federal crackdowns on medical marijuana even in states where it is legal, this is dangerous, as the government’s interpretation is not always consistent with the science provided (or with common sense, for that matter).

Manufacturers and sellers should not be prosecuted simply because people choose to blatantly ignore the instructions of use. If that were the case, we would see manufacturers making everything from cold medicine to glue being prosecuted.
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