Trafficking Laws in Florida
Derek Byrd, Byrd Law Firm
Florida has some of the strictest drug trafficking laws in all the nation. What I mean is if you’re charged with Trafficking, you’re facing a mandatory minimum prison sentence. Now understand when I say “mandatory minimum”, it means exactly what it says.
If you’re charged with a Trafficking offense and are subsequently convicted of a Trafficking offense, you have to serve a certain amount of time in prison. It’s mandatory. Trafficking penalties range from a three-year mandatory minimum, a seven-year mandatory minimum, a 15-year mandatory minimum, all the way up to a 25-year mandatory minimum.
Most people think Trafficking means that you’re a drug dealer or that you’re actually selling drugs. That’s not what it means. The simple possession of a certain quantity of a drug can equal Trafficking. For example, cocaine requires that you possess 28 grams or more of cocaine in order to be charged with Trafficking in Cocaine.
If you’re in possession of 28 grams of cocaine (an ounce) and convicted of the same, you will face a three-year mandatory minimum prison sentence, even if the ounce of cocaine is totally for your own use. You could be severely addicted to cocaine and be in possession of an ounce of cocaine for yourself. If you’re caught with that ounce, then you will be facing a three-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. The Judge cannot just sentence you to probation. The Judge can’t just sentence you to house arrest. The Judge cannot sentence you to anything less than 3 years in prison.
I think where we really get into a significant problem is with trafficking in controlled substances. Lately, the drug of choice for a lot of young people has been opiates, hydrocodone, and oxycodone (Vicodin, Percocet). It only takes four grams of an opiate to be charged with Trafficking in a Controlled Substance. Four grams. Also, they don’t weigh the milligrams of the actual opiate – they weigh the entire pill. I have had clients who were in possession of 15 pills, and they weigh greater than four grams. So, those 15 pills actually mean my client is facing a three-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. I’ve also had many clients, unfortunately, who are addicted to opiates and they can easily take 15 pills in one day. So that means a one-day supply of their pills equals a three-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. This is, obviously, not fair. But that’s the way the law is currently written. If you possess 4 to 14 grams of opiate, you face a three-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. If you possess greater than 14 grams of opiate, you face a 15-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. That’s right – a 15-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. I’ve had clients who walked out of a pharmacy with a prescription of Percocet or Vicodin. And when they walked out of that pharmacy, the police immediately handcuffed them because they filled the prescription fraudulently.
Mr. Derek Byrd specializes in Criminal Law and is Board Certified by the Florida Bar as a Criminal Trial Attorney.