Most people have heard through school, interaction with the judicial system, television shows or otherwise that there is a constitutional right to jury trial for people charged with a crime. This is usually true, but it is not true in every case. There is an exception for certain minor crimes…
In Florida, the general rule is that the police cannot search a person’s property without a search warrant or specific consent from the owner of that property. There are exceptions, of course, but a police search without a search warrant or consent is generally going to be illegal. When the…
In order for the police to be able to search your home for evidence of a crime, they either have to have a valid search warrant or they have to have consent from the owner or someone with proper authorization to give that consent. For the latter method, the police…
Police officers like marijuana arrests because they are easy- they don’t require much work, they don’t require much thought, and they don’t require much, if any, investigation. This is one of many reasons why dealing with the war on drugs that primarily serves to waste money and increase the size…
In Florida, a person enjoys special protection from illegal searches and seizures in his/her home or other residence. At a minimum, this means that police officers and other agents of the state cannot just come into a person’s residence looking for evidence of criminal activity without a search warrant or…
One sad fact about elections and political movements- they are expensive, and the costs seem to increase each year. As more and more states realize there is a medical benefit to marijuana and it is ridiculous to have it on the list of Schedule I drugs along with substances like…
The federal government maintains a list of Schedule I drugs. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, these are substances that they have determined have a high potential for abuse and have no accepted medical benefit. You do not have to look far down the list to see how…
While we certainly agree that having less government in our lives is a good thing, not every government agency shares our sentiments. Specifically, as it relates to the war on drugs, “small government conservative” politicians and law enforcement continue to expend limited resources and money to detain and arrest people…
In Florida and elsewhere, people have privacy rights in their vehicles. This means that the police generally cannot search a person’s vehicle for drugs or other evidence of criminal activity without consent from the owner or a search warrant. There are some exceptions to this general rule, but the police…
For any type of drug possession case, there are two ways the state can prove the crime in Florida. The easiest way is with an actual possession case. Actual possession is what it sounds like. If a person is holding the drugs or has drugs in his/her pocket or is…