Even though a Virginia 251 disposition (enabling dismissal of a first-time drug possession case after successful probation completion) can be a Trojan Horse, a 251 ordinarily is preferable to a conviction. Recently, the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate made efforts to convert mandatory...
Last week, the Virginia Court of Appeals exempted from the Good Samaritan drug law those who do not actively seek nor actively obtain medical attention if experiencing a drug overdose, rather than simply cooperating with law enforcement and emergency personnel on their arrival. Here, Broadous...
Every once in awhile, the United States Supreme Court issues a great decision for criminal defendants. For instance, in March 2013, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that police need probable cause to believe the existence of relevant criminal activity before taking a drug-sniffing dog to...
The drug war is bankrupt. Federal, state and local governments have poured billions of dollars into the drug wars for over five decades, with little more to show for it than America's failed trillion dollar years-long war in Vietnam. Sun Tzu wisely advised against long...
Super Bowl Sunday is a time of high energy, merrymaking, drinking beer and other alcohol, chowing down, cheering when one's team wins, and regretting when one's team loses. Getting tipsy on alcohol can be fun, at least when it does not unleash one's demons and...
Behind the seemingly innocent exteriors of plenty of hotels lie illegal drug possession and illegal drug transactions. Unless the hotel is knowingly receiving payola for such activity, the hotel can be expected to seek police intervention to stop the activity. Abdul Lateef Salahuddin learned that...
On January 12, 2017, the National Academy of Sciences released its lengthy report on "Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids." The report is too lengthy for me to have reviewed yet. A cursory check seems to show the report's recognizing potential medical benefits of cannabis/marijuana,...
Settlement negotiations are an essential part of most criminal defense work, whether the negotiations seek an outright dismissal, continuance for possible dismissal with or without dismissal conditions, or any other number of resolutions right up to convictions involving amended or dropped charges and/or agreements as...
In Virginia, marijuana possession is a misdemeanor but hashish oil possession is a felony. How is that possible, when hashish oil comes from marijuana and when the Virginia Code does not define hashish oil?...
After all the dizzying strides that the marijuana industry has made in Colorado and other states where marijuana has become lawful, and continued efforts to legalize domestic hemp production, the Trump administration's marijuana policies may make federal litigation all the more necessary and extensive to...
On Election Day 2016, four states' marijuana legalization referendums passed, in Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada and California. Election Day doubled the number of states with legalized recreational marijuana to eight, plus Washington, D.C. ...
Marijuana legalization is about expanding civil liberties, reversing our overgrown police state and criminal "justice" system, and achieving a better society. I have no plans to consume marijuana nor other non-prescription/non-over-the-counter drugs....
In Virginia, if a criminal misdemeanor statute lists no possible jail time, then the offense actually is a Class 1 misdemeanor, carrying up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500. Va. Code § 18.2-12. ...
Unrepresented criminal defendants do all sorts of harmful things to themselves when they appear for their trial date without a lawyer. One recent situation took the cake....
If one or more people want to be foolhardy enough to use or share methamphetamine, why do we need to waste limited police resources and government money on finding and nabbing them, rather than letting them suffer their own consequences of using the drug, until...
It always is all the more an honor when a NORML chapter invites me to speak at one of their gatherings. My most recent such speaking engagement was at the Northern Virginia NORML's August 9 meeting in Arlington, Virginia. There, my talk on marijuana reform...
The federal government is stuck in the dark ages with marijuana, still keeping it as a Schedule I controlled substance, which is the same schedule classifying heroin, meaning no currently accepted medical use. Hogwash! ...
Drug detection is about chemistry, and even prosecutors' chemists -- with a never-ending stream and often backlog of alleged drugs to test while still testifying in court -- can get drug testing wrong, particularly with being challenged by mental and physical exhaustion with their heavy...
When police find suspected illegal drugs on or near a suspect, they field test the substance as part of the determination of whether to arrest the suspect(s), to search further, or to seek a search warrant. ...
This year, with an extraordinary coalescing of politicians from across the party spectrum, Maryland will no longer have mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent drug offenses, although with the compromise of increased available penalties for such offenses as second degree murder. ...
