A Criminal Lawyer in Jacksonville FL

Section 893.135 Florida Statutes governs trafficking in Marijuana, cannabis .  A person who is in possession of more than 25 pounts of cannabis, or more than 300 plants into the state, commits a felony.  The minimum term of imprisonment from 25 pounds to 2,000 pounds of cannabis is 3 years including a fine of $25,000.00.  The same is true for persons in possession of more than 300 but less than 2,000 plants. The mandatory minimum term of imprisonment rises to 7 years and a fine of $50,000 for marijuana weighing from 2,000 to 10,000 pounds.  Again, the same is true as a mandatory minimum for 2,000 plants to 10,000 plants.  Over 10,000 pounds or plants, the fine quadruples to $200,000 and the minimum term of imprisonment rises to 15 years. Plants must be considered to have root formation, and root hairs to be considered under the terms of this statute.  Callous tissue on the stalk of a marijuana plant is not readily observable evidence of root formation,...

During a news conference in Tallahassee on last Saturday Febuary 1st, 2014 The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced an investigation that may result in prosecutors having to drop/quash charges and set free prisoners in an undisclosed number of criminal drug cases throughout the state of Florida. The reason the cases may be compromised resulting in dropped criminal charges in cases is due to alleged tampering by a chemist working in a FDLE agency crime lab since 2006. According to the Associated Press this alleged tampering escapade involving now former chemist Joseph Graves spread throughout more than 35 counties and involves more than 80 law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Florida. Escambia County investigators are to be credited for uncovering this alleged crime by former state crime lab chemist later revealed to be Joseph Graves; who was arrested on late Tuesday Feb 4th, 2014. Immediately, upon investigation, Graves was placed on leave with pay pe...

Mike Riggs  recently commented regarding Florida's drug possession laws reporting about a person in Florida who was fired from his job due to what he, and one person in possession of LSD , deem to be a mandatory minimum within the drug law.  The "inordinate mandatory minimum" within the drug law that he wrote upon, dealt with the medium in which the LSD was fixed.  In this case, he had or roughly 25 doses of LSD fixed to paper, which would weigh, without the paper, 4-5 milligrams.  I do not know how the e-mailer exactly got away with his claim that this was just a small quantity of LSD, however because it was fixed in a medium, he qualified for a mandatory minimum sentence under the guidelines.  Even though 25 doses isn't necessarily a "small" amount of LSD in the eyes of an average jury, it had a devastating effect on his life which was out of proportion to his crime. This raised an interesting comment made by Greg Newburn of FAMM (Families Against Man...