2014 Criminal Laws
Florida Statute §893.135 which governs Florida’s drug trafficking laws was enacted for the purpose of combatting high-level drug traffickers and dealers. The penalties for violating any section of this statute were harsh. Drug traffickers would be faced with minimum-mandatory periods of imprisonment and substantial fines. On its face, this appeared to be an idea that would not be met with much opposition. However, what the statute failed to take into account were the large numbers of addicts who would find themselves caught in this web for simply possessing a predetermined weight of drugs despite the fact that these individuals had no intent whatsoever to sell or traffic their drugs. Things only got worse when the State of Florida cracked down on trafficking in prescription narcotics (oxycodone and hydrocodone) that individuals were obtaining from the so called “pill mills”, or worse yet, teenagers were gathering from their parent’s and grandparent’s medicine cabinets.