Recent Blog Posts
Introducing Medetomidine, The Most Recent Addition To The Illegal Drug Supply
For good reason, most people consider opioids the hardest of hard drugs. They are among the most addictive substances around; perhaps only nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco, is more addictive. Opioid overdose can cause life-threatening respiratory depression, and for the past several years, the synthetic opioid fentanyl has caused more fatal overdoses than… Read More »
What Does The Decline In Fentanyl Deaths Mean For Your Drug Case?
Fear has always been a key ingredient in the criminal process when it comes to drug cases. At trials, prosecutors play on jurors’ fears of how things might have gotten worse if police had not arrested the defendant and confiscated the drugs when they did? They say, “This bag of powder contained fentanyl. If… Read More »
Credit Card BIN Attacks
Most financial crimes are not as elaborate as identity theft. It is possible to cause financial losses simply by stealing someone’s credit card or credit card information, and there are plenty of ways to do this, from surreptitiously photographing a card number from a credit card or a document where the number is written… Read More »
Unlawful Carry Of Weapons
Last summer, Florida made news headlines for enacting a “permitless carry” law. Pursuant to the new law, you can carry a concealed firearm whether or not you have a permit, as long as you meet the eligibility requirements for getting a permit. Florida’s gun laws are notoriously lenient, but that does not mean that… Read More »
When Does Extreme Couponing Become A Crime?
Everything is so expensive in Florida that the only ways to afford anything are coupons and crime. The problems begin when reasonable minds disagree about when coupon shopping becomes a crime. Florida law recognizes the criminal offense of coupon frauds when a customer knowingly attempts to redeem fraudulent coupons or counterfeits coupons and distributes… Read More »
How Bad Is It If You Fail To Appear In Court?
This week, the Florida Man who is on everyone’s mind is Joseph Malinowski, nicknamed “Lieutenant Dan” after the tough as nails Vietnam War veteran from the movie Forrest Gump. Malinowski achieved fame by staying on his boat during Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, while everyone else scurried for higher ground. Shortly after his image… Read More »
Smartphone Searches And The Fourth Amendment
Things can quickly go from mildly annoying to disastrous at traffic stops. One minute you make an illegal turn, and the next thing you know, police K9s are pointing at your pills that you thought were Xanax, but now the crime lab is saying that they were fentanyl, and all because a cop insisted… Read More »
Prosecutorial Misconduct And Florida Criminal Cases
In most contexts, two wrongs don’t make a right. If your brother complains to your mother that you hit him, and you protest, “He hit me first,” your mother’s response will probably be that you are both wrong. In divorce cases where both spouses had extramarital affairs, the court does not automatically award the… Read More »
Why All The Fuss About Gabapentin, If It Isn’t A Controlled Substance?
This sounds like something that happened in Florida, but in fact, it happened in Pennsylvania. A man would call doctors who had previously treated his girlfriend, saying that she was having a seizure and needed a prescription for gabapentin immediately. The doctor would call in a prescription to a pharmacy, and the man would… Read More »
Can You Get Criminal Charges For Chroming?
Every week, the news media comes up with something new for adults to panic about, usually something apparently dangerous that teenagers are doing on social media. This week, the Internet is abuzz about chroming, which the young generation apparently thinks it invented, if the news reports are to be believed. Of course, chroming is… Read More »
