Florida Drug Crime Lawyers
Florida Drug Crime Attorneys Serving Tampa, Orlando, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Clearwater
Drug Trafficking In Florida
Trafficking in illegal narcotics is the most serious non-violent crime in the state of Florida. If you are charged with trafficking anywhere from 4-14 grams, depending on the drug, your mandatory sentence is three years. There are many scenarios but if you are caught with a trafficking amount of drugs there is going to be a mandatory prison sentence that may be 3 years, 7 years, 15 years or even 25 years. These sentences can be enforced on people who have no prior history.
So how do we go about defending drug trafficking cases? One way is we want to talk to you and get your side of the story. We want to know what circumstances led to your arrest for trafficking. Did someone put you up to it? Many times you are convinced to sell your prescription drugs to a friend or family member due to a number of different circumstances. You can be charged with trafficking for selling your legal prescription drugs. Even a minor amount like 4 grams will result in 3-7 years in jail.
Another thing that we can help with following an arrest for trafficking is dealing with confidential informants. We need to explore who that informant contacted you and how many times there was contract before you were arrested for trafficking. We want to sink our teeth into your case and make the state meet their burden.
Age is another way to work around mandatory minimum sentences. The youthful offender statute in Florida applies to individuals under the age of 21 when they committed their crime. A judge will have some wiggle room to get you under those mandatory minimum sentences for trafficking charges.
This are extremely tough cases that carry serious penalties. That is why you need an aggressive attorney who is ready to fight the charges and fight to see your rights are protected. That is what we provide at Finebloom and Haenel.
Drug Possession Charges
Possession of drugs is a broad ranging charge that can be a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the type of drug. Lets take possession of marijuana for instance. If you were charged with marijuana possession and it was less than 20 grams, that is a misdemeanor in the state of Florida. That charge can carry a sentence of up to one year in the county jail. This crime, even for a minor amount of marijuana, can also result in a two-year driver license suspension. There are many ways to fight these cases. We want to know where the drugs were found. Were they in your vehicle? Were there other people with you when the drugs were found? The state has to prove that YOU were in possession of the drugs. As long as you don’t admit to ownership, we can fight those possession charges.
One of the key things in drug possession cases is the search that led to the discovery of the drugs. You need to stand up for your rights when a law enforcement officer asks to search you or your car. What basis do they have to preform the search? When you ask this question, always be respectful of the officer you are dealing with but make sure you protect your rights. If there is more than one person in the car during a traffic stop and the officer begins to question either you or your passenger, make sure you ask for a lawyer at that point. You have no obligation to talk to the police officer. They may threaten you with jail or further searches and they may do those things but if you want to be able to defend yourself down the road, ask for your lawyer. There is nothing wrong with that.
Possession of drugs resulting in a felony charge stems from possessing over 20 grams of marijuana. The same applies to cocaine or any other type of illegal narcotic you do not have a prescription for. These types of possession cases are third-degree felony cases. That felony charges carries a punishment of up to five years in state prison. If you have any prior offenses, that will factor into the sentence the state seeks. Our first goal in these cases is to try and get the charges dropped. We want to begin an immediate investigation looking for answers as to why you were stopped in the first place, why they searched you, your car or your home. If the police had a warrant, it better be recent, we will look into that as well.
If you have a minor possession charge, it can effect your future whether it is a jail sentence, a driver’s license suspension or a loss of employment. These are all important reasons to hire an experienced attorney to handle your drug possession case.
Drug Distribution Charges
The war on drugs in America is serious. Don’t believe us, here is an example. You can face a longer prison sentence for selling drugs than for molesting a child. That is how serious these charges are. In many drug distribution cases the defendant is arrested based on a deal cut between the police and another person who has been arrested for possibly a lesser charge. Sometimes it is a friend or family member. The police can use their tremendous influence to make people cooperate with them so they don’t go to jail. Sometimes that leads to entrapment and lands you in jail.
If this is the case with your arrest, you need to contact a lawyer immediately. We need to begin an investigation right away. We want to know how that person contacted you, how many times and what they said. We want to get your phone records and see the volume of calls made to you by an informant working with the police. These are the things we start to look at when you hire our firm.
So what drugs fall under drug distribution laws? Marijuana, cocaine, meth and heroin all come to mind immediately but prescription drugs like Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Xanax, Oxycotin and other painkillers all fall under this law as well. Any type of controlled substance cam lead to distribution charges. If the amount of drugs you are charged with selling is a small amount, we can often work with the prosecutors to get lesser charges, diversion and probation. In some counties though a first-offense will have the judges and State’s Attorney looking for six months in the county jail. These are serious charges and you need a lawyer to help you fight them.
Florida DUI Drugs
DUI while under the influence of an illegal narcotic or a controlled substance is a charge we are fighting more and more lately. Our firm defends DUI cases all day every day. DUI doesn’t exclusively relate to drunk driving although many people closely associate the two. DUI can just as easily be charged against someone the police believe is under the influence of marijuana, cocaine, meth or even a controlled substance like prescription drugs.
In these cases police officers often mistake the signs of impairment for drunk driving. They will arrest you and take you to jail where they administer a breath test. That breath test will register 0.000, meaning there is no alcohol present. When the officers see that result, they will begin to suspect DUI drugs and ask for a urine test. You have the right to fight that in court although it is the law in Florida that you are required to take any test including a urine test you can refuse it. If you do, you need to understand the ramifications of that decision. A refusal will result in you losing your license for a minimum of one year. That is where a experienced lawyer can help you. We can challenge that license suspension. We can challenge those test results.
Driving under the influence of drugs is a tougher case to prove because narcotics can show up in your system days after their use. Marijuana can show up in your system up to 30 days after you used it. Cocaine can be present in your system for 72 hours. How can the police prove at the time of your urine test that you were impaired if the drug can show up days or even weeks after you used it? It is very difficult.
Here are the potential consequences of being convicted of a crime involving marijuana:
Possession |
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20 g or less |
misdemeanor |
1 year |
$1,000 |
More than 20 g |
felony |
5 years |
$5,000 |
300 or more plants |
felony |
Mandatory 3 Years up to 30 |
$25,000 |
Sale or Trafficking |
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Sale of 20 g or less |
felony |
5 years |
$5,000 |
>25lbs <2000 lbs (or 300 Plants) |
felony |
3 years MMS* |
$25,000 |
>2000 lbs<10,000 lbs (or 2000 plants) |
felony |
7 years MMS* |
$50,000 |
>10,000 lbs (or 10,000 plants) |
felony |
15 years MMS* |
$200,000 |
All trafficking offenses have Mandatory Minimum Sentences (MMS). |
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Miscellaneous(paraphernalia, license suspensions, drug tax stamps, etc…) |
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Paraphernalia possession |
misdemeanor |
1 year |
$1,000 |
Not only does the state have to get it into evidence they need to bring someone down from Tallahassee to testify that was your urine and what drug was present in it. Even if that person does come down to testify, they will not be able to say when the drug that showed up in your urine test was actually taken. Unless the arresting department had a drug recognition expert evaluate you at the time of your arrest, the state has an uphill battle to prove these cases.
Our firm loves to fight these cases. It is what we do daily. Give us the opportunity to fight your case.