Category Archives: Drug Offenses
Newly Enacted Florida Law Categorizes Eight Synthetic Opioids As Schedule I Controlled Substances
The classification of drugs on the five schedules listed in the Controlled Substances Act has less to do with their chemical composition or its potency than with its accepted medical uses and its abuse potential. Schedule I controlled substances are widely abused but have no legally accepted uses in medicine. Schedule II controlled substances… Read More »
What Floridians Should Know About The Kratom Consumer Protection Act
Kratom, which is the common name for the leaves of the Mitragyna speciosa tree and products derived from them, has been at the center of legal controversies in recent years. M. speciosa is native to Southeast Asia and is a close relative of the Coffea genus of plants from which coffee is derived. In… Read More »
Kodak Black Avoids Prison After Positive Drug Test
Bill Kapri, a recording artist who performs under the stage name Kodak Black, has been a fixture of South Florida’s hip hop scene since he was in his teens. He has also had his share of legal troubles, only some of which have to do with drugs. In the summer of 2022, Kapri was… Read More »
Is Super Meth The Next Big Drug Epidemic?
Every so often, the media makes a big deal about a new addition to the drug supply. The media hype often comes with a heavy dose of stereotypes about the users of those drugs. All of those feature stories on the evening news about inner city crackheads, trailer park meth heads, and apathetic young… Read More »
New Study Supports Ketamine Therapy As A Treatment For Cocaine Use Disorder
If you are judging by the number of overdose deaths, fentanyl is the most dangerous drug out there. In fact, opioids have dominated the headlines about addiction, overdose, and drug-related crime in the United States for more than a decade. Many people who have suffered from opioid use disorder began their relationship with opioids… Read More »
Drug Enforcement Administration Classifies Delta-8 As A Controlled Substance
A few years ago, the green iguana was the most noteworthy ubiquitous green thing in the Sunshine State, but by now the iguanas have become such an ordinary part of the landscape that it is no more surprising to one than it is to see an American alligator or an ageless octogenarian. Like so… Read More »
Police Find Three Pounds Of Methamphetamine In Sarasota County Drug Bust
Drug busts happen for a reason. The police do not randomly burst into people’s houses in search of illegal drugs. The law does not allow them to do this. Pursuant to the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, law enforcement cannot search private property without a warrant. Therefore, before they have the right… Read More »
The CDC’s New Guidelines On Opioid Prescribing Do Not Directly Address Illicit Drugs But Could Represent A New Chapter In The Opioid Epidemic
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued guidelines regarding the prescribing of opioid painkillers. The 2016 guidelines encouraged doctors only to prescribe short courses of the drugs and to taper doses or discontinue the prescription after several weeks in almost all cases. This was a stark contrast with the 1990s… Read More »
Over-The-Counter Antihistamines And The Opioid Epidemic
This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report detailing a disturbing recent trend in opioid overdoses. It reported that approximately 15 percent of the patients whose deaths were attributed to opioid overdose in 2019 and 2020 also tested positive for over-the-counter antihistamines. Many of these overdoses were accidental, as… Read More »
It Is Illegal To Drive Under The Influence Of Cannabis, But How Do You Prove It?
State laws about cannabis interact with each other in ways that make it possible to face charges for cannabis crimes even when your mere possession of the marijuana or edibles is not a violation of the law. For example, you can get charges for DUI if you drive under the influence of cannabis, even… Read More »
