Marijuana Related Crimes

How to Get Your Marijuana DUI Charges Reduced or Dropped

Published on: October 18, 2020 | by Roelke Law, P.A.

Have you been arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) of marijuana? If so, depending on the facts of your particular case, it may be possible to have your charges reduced or even outright dropped. This is because the State’s burden of proving you were actually impaired by marijuana, as opposed to having merely used it, is far more complicated than showing you were impaired from the use of alcohol in the typical DUI case.

Florida legalized the use of marijuana for certain medical purposes in 2016. However, while the state has legalized marijuana for medical use, it continues to be illegal for recreational use. And, regardless of whether you have a medical prescription for marijuana or you use marijuana for recreational purposes, you can be charged with DUI of marijuana if you have any amount of cannabis in your system. Further, when it comes to DUIs, Florida law doesn’t use terms like ‘driving drunk” or “driving high.” Instead, Florida makes it illegal for you to drive under the influence of a substance to the extent your “normal faculties” are impaired whether that substance is alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs or a combination of these substances.

The critical difference between an alcohol DUI case and a marijuana DUI case is that THC, the chemical responsible for producing the marijuana “high”, can remain in your system for a long time after it is no longer psychoactive and therefore not having any effect on you. For example, if you smoke marijuana, the “high” generally peaks after about 10 minutes and lasts only from about 1 to 3 hours. Nonetheless, even though you are no longer “high”, you can have a positive THC test several hours, days or even weeks after you used marijuana. And that positive test will used by the State in an attempt to prove you were DUI of marijuana even though its effects had long worn off. Continue reading

Significance of a Green Tongue in a DUI Arrest

Published on: November 14, 2019 | by Roelke Law, P.A.

Driving under the influence (DUI) is a criminal offense in Florida. The offense is proved by impairment of “normal faculties” by drugs or alcohol and/or by an unlawful breath or blood alcohol level of 0.08 or above. Impairment of normal faculties by alcohol can be determined by testing blood, breath or urine. But it is much more difficult to determine impairment of normal faculties by marijuana or other drugs.

Currently in Florida, there is no definitive way, like a blood or breath test, to determine marijuana intoxication. Rather, the only way to determine whether someone’s normal faculties are impaired by marijuana is to assess whether they possess their normal faculties. Normal faculties includes the ability to perform the many mental and physical activities of daily life, such as walking, talking, seeing, hearing, driving and making judgments. Normal faculties are normally assessed in Florida DUI cases via the administration of roadside tests known as field sobriety exercises (FSEs).

In addition to administering FSEs, officers commonly note certain physical observations such as blood shot, watery eyes, pupil dilation, facial flushing, and speech slurring to bolster their conclusion someone’s normal faculties are impaired. And, in some marijuana-based DUI cases, officers across the United States are alleging that people who’ve recently smoked marijuana have green tongues. In fact, law enforcement officers are instructed to look for a “possible green coating” in one world-wide specialized training program. Continue reading

New Hemp Law Makes it Harder to Prosecute Florida Marijuana Cases

Published on: August 25, 2019 | by Roelke Law, P.A.

On June 25, 2019 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida Senate Bill 1020, regulating the production and distribution of hemp and hemp extracts in Florida, including the increasingly popular hemp derivative, cannabidiol (CBD). The bill makes Florida the latest state to enact legislation to legalize and regulate its hemp industry. The bill mirrors similar action at the federal level late last year when President Trump signed the Farm Bill removing hemp from the list of controlled substances, making it legal to grow and sell hemp under federal law.

Hemp comes from the same cannabis plant that produces marijuana. Marijuana, however has much higher levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical in the plant that is psychoactive and produces the hallmark “high” or euphoria. Both hemp and marijuana contain CBD, a medical compound that has health benefits but is non-euphoric.

Under the Farm Bill, hemp is legal provided doesn’t contain more than 0.3 percent THC. If hemp contains more than 0.3 percent THC, it is still a federally banned controlled substance. Similarly, Senate Bill 1020 excludes hemp from the definition of cannabis provided the THC concentration does not exceed 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.

Marijuana Legalization is Putting Some Drug Dogs Out of Work

Published on: June 2, 2019 | by Roelke Law, P.A.

To date, the following eleven states have legalized recreational use of marijuana: Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts. As those and other states and cities relax their drug laws, the highly trained dogs used by their police departments to sniff out narcotics can’t be relied on to smell the right thing.

It generally costs a law enforcement department about $6,000 to purchase a working dog and thousands more to train it. The drug dogs are usually trained to detect numerous drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and methamphetamine. So, when a dog alerts, it simply indicates the presence of one of those five drugs. In those states where marijuana has been fully legalized, a drug dog’s alert could mean it smells only marijuana. Since marijuana is legal in those states, the dog’s alert would not give rise to probable cause to search a person or their vehicle for illegal drugs.

Thus, in several states where marijuana is fully legalized, including California, Oregon, Maine and Vermont, most newly acquired drug dogs are not being trained to alert to the smell of marijuana. And, some other states where recreational marijuana use is not legal have started to omit marijuana from the scents dogs are trained to detect. Continue reading

Merely Being Around Drugs Is Insufficient to Support a Conviction for Possession

Published on: November 16, 2018 | by Roelke Law, P.A.

The First District Court of Appeal recently issued an opinion concerning whether merely being around drugs is sufficient to convict someone for possession. Based on the facts in that case, the answer is “no.”

In that case officers found illegal drugs while investigating a shootout between two cars that had left a gas station. Among other things, the officers found a cocktail shaker cup stuffed with marijuana lying next to a fence at the gas station’s property line.

At about the same time in another part of town, other officers stopped a car with three occupants that had been part of the shootout. Mr. McKire was in the back seat of the car heavily bleeding from a gunshot wound. He was transported to the hospital. Continue reading

Marijuana Possession Arrests Are No Longer Disqualifying for Military Service

Published on: January 15, 2018 | by Roelke Law, P.A.

There is good news if you desire to serve in the military, but you have a previous arrest for marijuana possession. The United States Army is issuing an increasing number of enlistment waivers to those who have smoked pot and also want to serve their country. These waivers allow previously disqualified applicants to now enter the Army.

The increase in waivers reflects the Army’s difficulty in achieving its ever-increasing recruiting goals. In 2016 the Army enlisted approximately 63,000 recruits. That number increased to approximately 69,000 last year. The Army’s goal in 2018 is to enlist 80,000 recruits. The need for new soldiers comes as Congress has reversed trends begun in the Obama administration to downsize the military.

And, the number of waivers granted for marijuana users, while relatively small, nonetheless is increasing rapidly as well. In 2016, there were 191 waivers granted. That number increased substantially, to more than 500, last year. While small compared against the total number of recruits enlisted, the increasing number of waivers granted is especially significant considering that just three years ago, no such waivers were granted. This substantial increase is one way officials are attempting to comply with directives to expand the Army’s size. Continue reading