An Air National Guard helicopter flying around Bradford County, Florida (about an hour southwest of Jacksonville, Florida) spotted a marijuana plant growing in the backyard of a Starke, Florida resident, according to an article on News4Jax.com. Local police officers subsequently searched the property including the house and found marijuana and…
Recent statistics show that there were over 1.7 million arrests on drug charges in the United States in 2008. One might expect that many of these arrests targeted the more serious drug offenses like trafficking and manufacturing dangerous drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. That was not the case. Of…
In a recent trafficking in methamphetamine and marijuana case, the police went to the house of the suspect with a warrant for his arrest. The police officers knocked on the door without announcing who they were and why they were there. The police officers then opened the door and found…
Consider a fairly common situation where a police officer makes a traffic stop of a vehicle. The police officer testifies that he saw the driver shuffling around in the vehicle as if he was trying to hide or grab something, such as a gun or illegal drugs. In this case,…
In a recent drug case south of Jacksonville, Florida, the defendant’s drug charges were thrown out after the court ruled that the police officer was not authorized to enter the defendant’s home and any drugs that were found in his home were illegally seized. In this case, police officers responded…
In a recent case south of Jacksonville, Florida, the police got a call of a suspected burglary at the house next to the caller’s house. When the police arrived, they found the defendant moving items from the house to a car parked next to the house. The front door to…
Lasnetski Gihon Law was called by a client who had been arrested a few counties south of Jacksonville, Florida for possession of marijuana. The client was at his home on his back porch. A police officer was responding to a noise complaint made by the client’s neighbor about the client.…
We see many cases where the police find illegal drugs near a person or group of people or in a house or car owned by someone and charge one or more people with possession of those drugs. For example, the police may go to a apartment or hotel room that…
The current law on federal student aid disqualifies anyone from receiving federal student aid or loans if he/she has a drug conviction, even just a drug possession conviction that is a misdemeanor. For instance, if a student is caught with a small amount of marijuana and gets convicted of drug…
We have written before about how people who commit crack cocaine crimes in federal court receive higher sentences than people who commit similar crimes involving powder cocaine. In other words, in order to get a similar sentence in certain situations, it would take the possession of much more powder cocaine…