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Category Archives: Drug Crimes

Marijuana3

Florida’s Year of Uncertainty Regarding Cannabis Laws

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Cannabis laws have changed a lot in the last decade, to say the least.  Ten years ago, if you insinuated that the state or federal government was about to legalize marijuana, your friends would just congratulate you on how high you were and pass you the bong.  Smoke shops bore signs that stated in… Read More »

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CrimLaw11

Pill Presses Are Not Your Grandpa’s Drug Paraphernalia

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Facing drug charges is no laughing matter, but the story of Gal Vallerius has all the hallmarks of a Miami New Times grade tall tale; even though the story spans the globe, it could only take place in Florida.  You have to admit that OxyMonster is a fun screen name, almost as much fun… Read More »

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CrimJustice2

Meet Dimethylpentylone, Florida’s Newest Designer Drug

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

The idea of designer drugs is nothing new, but drugs come and go from the drug supply so quickly that to trace their prevalence in South Florida from the time of the 60s counterculture through the disco age, the “Just Say No” era, the heyday of shady strip mall pain clinics and the hideous… Read More »

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CrimDef13

Confidential Informants: How to Be One, and What to Do If One Testifies Against You

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Confidential informants add exciting twists to movies about crime and criminal investigations; depending on whether the story is told from the point of view of a defendant or a prosecutor, informants are either low down, rotten snitches or underdog heroes.  Police often rely on tips from confidential informants in drug trafficking investigations, and sometimes… Read More »

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GavelTrial

Pink Cocaine, a Miami Original That Is Less Original Than It Sounds

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

In the 1980s, Miami Vice granted a pop culture mystique to several aspects of Miami’s aesthetic that never would have been cool in the 1970s.  It wasn’t the obvious things, though, not the cops or the cocaine.  Police-themed shows have represented an astonishingly large percentage of programming throughout the television era, and cocaine was… Read More »

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DrugArrest2

Charged With A Drug Crime?

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Schedule I controlled substances are the most illegal of illegal drugs.  They do not have any legally approved medical uses, and it is illegal to possess them under any circumstances.  By contrast, the drugs on the other four schedules have at least one legally acknowledged medical application.  In other words, what the drugs on… Read More »

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Gavel_Cuffs

Floridian’s Guide to Quaaludes

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Like so many once prevalent pharmaceutical drugs, methaqualone is now a Schedule I controlled substance.  It was once popular with doctors to prescribe as a sleeping pill.  The problem is that it was a little too popular with patients.  If you think Ambien makes you behave out of character, you should see how the… Read More »

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Marijuana3

Federal Agency Says It’s High Time Federal Law Rescheduled Cannabis

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

It is a piece of news that cannabis aficionados across the United States have been hoping to hear for a long time.  Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent a memo to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in which it recommended removing cannabis from the list of Schedule I controlled… Read More »

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PoliceStop

What Not to Do at a Traffic Stop: Tales of Florida Man

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Anger and fear are normal responses when a police officer pulls you over while you are driving and seems sure that you have drugs in your car, even though nothing about your driving behavior indicates that you are under the influence of drugs, and even though no drugs are visible in your car.  Police… Read More »

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GavelCuffs2

All About Carfentanil, an Extremely Potent Synthetic Opioid

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Clickbait is no longer a new tactic in sensational journalism, and people scroll right past headlines that include phrases like “jaw dropping” and “you won’t believe.”  Fentanyl isn’t new, either, but it is scary enough that people will still click on headlines that include the phrase “scarier than fentanyl.”  Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about… Read More »

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Cannabis

Two New Changes to Florida Cannabis Laws

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Floridians know more about citrus than people in most parts of the world do.  We know a Clementine from a tangelo and a grapefruit from a pomelo, and to the surprise of everyone, we have been known to wolf down kumquats in a single bite, peel and all.  Despite our superior knowledge and impeccable… Read More »

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Opioid

Florida Criminalizes Eight Synthetic Opioids

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Opioids are not new, and neither is opioid abuse and addiction.  Despite this, the opioid drugs most prevalent in the illegal drug supply change frequently, due to the availability and cost of these drugs and to new drugs being synthesized and sold legally or illegally.  In the early 2010s, legal but poorly regulated pain… Read More »

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MarijuanaJoints

Recreational Cannabis In Florida Gets One Step Closer To Ballot Initiative

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

If your only evidence was the number of people rolling joints in plain sight, it would be understandable if you thought that recreational cannabis was legal in Florida and had been since before you arrived here.  In fact, cannabis laws in Florida have changed quickly over the past decade, but recreational cannabis use remains… Read More »

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CriminalDefense2

New Florida Law Seeks To Regulate The Production And Sale Of Kratom

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Many tropical regions have plants that do more than just look beautiful and make food taste better.  Plants of the genus Cannabis grow anywhere that the weather is warm enough.  In Yemen and East Africa, there is khat.  South America has coca and the ingredients of ayahuasca.  In Mexico and southern Texas, you can… Read More »

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QuestionMark

Is Possession Really Nine Tenths Of The Law?

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

If you get arrested for a crime, it is best to exercise your right to remain silent until you have a chance to talk to a criminal defense lawyer about your case.  You will probably go into survival mode, and your mind will be swirling with every possible way that you can get out… Read More »

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FedCrime3

Driver’s License Suspension For Drug Possession Convictions Is Counterproductive, But The Practice Continues Unabated In Florida

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Some corners of the Internet sing the praises of a world without automobiles, but the dream of a walkable utopia is not coming to Florida any time soon.  People rely on their cars to go everywhere, including for commuting to and from work and picking up their children from school.  They also rely on… Read More »

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CrimDef13

You Don’t Have To Be A Celebrity To Go To Drug Rehab Instead Of Jail While Awaiting Trial

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

It is as if, when it is a slow news day in South Florida, journalists have standing orders to recite the litany of criminal cases in which Bill Kapri, better known by his stage name Kodak Black, has been a defendant.  It is a thrilling story, by all accounts; Kodak Black began recording music… Read More »

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Gavel

Mixed Messages About Ketamine From Medicine, Law, And Society

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Ketamine is the world’s least dangerous anesthesia drug.  It is PCP lite.  Ketamine is nitrous oxide for grownups.  Ketamine captures the ethos of Generation Z, giggling apathetically like minions, the way that cocaine, heroin, LSD, and weed (then known as pot, marijuana, reefer, doobies, and a host of other outdated nicknames) captivated the imaginations… Read More »

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Question

What Does The DEA’s Decision To Make Delta-8 A Controlled Substance Mean For Florida’s Cannabis Industry And Its Patrons?

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

As recently as the beginning of this millennium, legal cannabis was literally a pipe dream. You occasionally saw bumper stickers and T-shirts that said “Legalize It” over a picture of a cannabis leaf, but such merchandise was only available at concerts, independent record stores, and a certain reggae-themed kiosk at the Sawgrass Mills mall. … Read More »

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DrugArrest

Arrested For A Drug Crime?

By Ratzan & Faccidomo LLC |

Although methamphetamine is excellent at causing long periods of wakefulness in those who consume it, it is not especially good at instilling fear in people who have never consumed it.  Our imaginations simply do not catastrophize about meth in the same way as they do about cocaine or opioids.  Breaking Bad made meth look… Read More »

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