The court found that Braun's arguments "manifest[ed] a continuing intention to use the media to make statements in the public with the media which violate[s] the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct. . . ." and excluded any reference at trial, or further public comment, about the CIA/Contra issue. 2.
We could make cocaine less dangerous with production regulations (sounds weird, but it's true) and less people would die from it. We could tax it and create a …
One of the most important things that any person under investigation for the sale, conspiracy to sell, and the trafficking in drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, extacy, GHB, or other designer drugs needs to understand is that there is almost never any benefit in consenting to a search, agreeing to make a statement, or agreeing to cooperate unless and until an attorney has been …
Aug 31, 2015 · A man who helped flood Washington, D.C., with drugs in the 1980s wants to reduce his sentence using guidelines that help drug offenders secure early release. A federal judge doesn't seem convinced.
A motion to suppress, which challenges a search or the seizure of evidence because the search or seizure by the Government was illegal. A motion for bill of particulars seeking that the Government discloses more details about when, where, and how it alleges that the defendant committed the crime.
Any criminal defense attorney who believes that he can match the power and resources of the government or leads his client to believe such a thing is delusional or dishonest. Even an army of criminal defense lawyers or the largest law firms cannot match the government’s financial resources or its manpower.
In the biblical story of David v. Goliath, David killed the giant Goliath by employing the strategy of allowing Goliath to underestimate him. Then with one sling shot and one rock David struck the one fatal blow to the Goliath’s weak spot.
The office of the District Attorney, State Attorney, and the United States Attorney are all political positions. District Attorneys and State Attorneys are elected on a county or circuit basis. United States Attorneys are appointed by the president but are often appointed to that position based upon political patronage and serve at the pleasure of the President.
District Attorneys and State Attorneys are elected on a county or circuit basis.
A “cooperating individual” is the person who agrees to testify on behalf of the government in return for an agreement from the government for a reduction in that person’s sentence, or sometimes even the dismissal or agreement not to file charges against the “cooperating individual”.
Plea-bargaining which is the term for the defendant agreeing to a lesser sentence in return for his agreement not to take the case to trial and / or in return for his cooperation in the prosecution of other individuals is an art.
Lamberth pressed a public defender about the fate of Melvin Butler, a man who helped flood the city with cocaine that contributed to waves of violence in the late 1980s.
Rayful Edmond III, one of Washington's most infamous drug kingpins, employed Melvin Butler in the late 1980s. Courtesy of May 3rd Films hide caption.
Prohibition protects the drug cartel in sofar as it keeps the distribution in the black market and creates the risk that makes smuggling profitable. As former federal narcotics officer Michael Levine states in relation to his undercover work with Colombian cocaine cartels, from Lamar
John Donnelly, writing for the Boston Globe on the presidential race of 2000, suggested that the candidates' silence on drug policy may stem from a widely shared belief that any position even hinting at reducing penalties for drug use would be political suicide. Charles R. Schuster, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Presidents Reagan and Bush (Snr.), was reported as saying in 1997, "Talking sense about drug policy in today's climate of opinion can be political suicide."
One of the prominent early critics of prohibition in the United States was August Vollmer, founder of the School of Criminology at University of California, Irvine and former president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. In his 1936 book The Police and Modern Society, he stated his opinion that:
Drug Free Australia argues "Regarding the freedom of choice of those addicted to a drug, it is important to recognize that addiction is defined as compulsive by its very nature and that addictions curb individual freedom." ... "As is the case with alcohol addiction, illicit drug addictions likewise serve to keep many such users functionally in poverty and often as a continued burden on friends, family and society. Where it is argued that all disabilities are a burden on society it must be recognized that most disabilities are not the result of a choice, whereas the decision to recreationally use illicit drugs is most commonly free, and with the knowledge that they may lead to an abundance of addictions."
There is evidence that many illicit drugs pose comparatively fewer health dangers than certain legal drugs. The health risks of MDMA (Ecstasy) have been exaggerated for instance, the risks from cannabis use also overstated, and health problems from the use of legal substances, particularly alcohol and tobacco, are greater, even than from cocaine use for example (occasional cocaine use does not typically lead to severe or even minor physical or social problems).
According to a World Health Organisation report: "As cannabis is an illegal drug its cultivation, har vesting and distribution are not subject to quality control mechanisms to ensure the reliability and safety of the product used by consumers . It is well recognised in developing countries, such as Kenya, that illicit alcohol production can result in the contamination with toxic by-products or adulterants that can kill or seriously affect the health of users. The same may be true of illicit drugs such as opiates, cocaine and amphetamine in developed societies."
With respect to drug crop cultivation, eradication efforts in line with prohibitionist drug policies ultimately force coca, poppy, and marijuana growers into more remote, ecologically sensitive areas. These crops, which are generally grown away from urban centers and state presence, tend to deplete forestland and expand the agricultural frontier. Out of fear of eradication, cultivators are incentivized to accelerate production cycles in order to obtain the highest yield in the shortest period of time; the pace and methods used by growers neglect measures to promote sustainability, exacerbating the environmental impact. Drug cultivators typically opt to produce in areas with ecosystems with abundant plant biomass to better conceal their operations. Ultimately, this practice leads to increased deforestation which contributes to a greater influx of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Moreover, the aerial spraying of herbicides such as glyphosate used in eradication and control efforts have been shown to have negative effects on environmental and human health.
This is because drugs are bought and sold on the black market, away from the rules and enforcement mechanisms of legal products.
If drugs were legal, it would be easier to identify and treat people with addiction. Drug addiction should be treated as a medical issue, not an issue of criminal justice. Addicts are driven underground if the purchase and possession of drugs is illegal.
Legalising harder drugs like heroin would only lead to more addiction and more deaths. Even if the hardest drugs remained illegal, softer drugs would only act as a gateway to more dangerous substances. 2. LEGALISATION MEANS REGULATION.
Legalising drugs won’t stop violence and social problems. Just look at Amsterdam or the Czech Republic, where more liberal approaches have led to increases in drug tourism and public disorder. In the Netherlands, some cities have been tightening restrictions on cannabis because of this.
Yet, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, overdose deaths from prescription drugs have reached “epidemic levels”. Over 8,400 people died in Europe in 2015 of drug overdoses.
Well...gasoline , among other nasty chemicals, is used to soak the coca leaves in after they're harvested. Meth, cocaine, and heroin are all "cooked" with chemicals and gas or diesel. Just because you can't make cocaine or heroin in your backyard does not make them safer or less addicting. Plus there's always a chance you'll get something you don't want. People add everything from baby laxatives to baking powder to other drugs you wouldn't want or expect and you wouldn't know until it was too late and by that point you'd be waking up in jail wondering wtf happened and how the eff you ended up i
Cocaine can cause or bring on heart attacks, strokes, psychosis, hallucinations, mental problems, damage to the nose cartilage, diseases if injected, bankruptcy, divorce, loss of child custody …. the list goes on and on.
If you've been charged with a crime, the outcome of your trial is going to depend on the evidence admitted in court, whether favorable or unfavorable. As early as possible, you should have a skilled criminal defense attorney in your corner evaluating the evidence and, where possible, moving to suppress harmful evidence.
If the chain of custody is broken, the evidence may lack credibility and could be deemed inadmissible. For example, a woman involved in a car crash has her blood drawn (with a warrant) to see if she was intoxicated while driving. But the police mislabel or mix up the blood evidence with others at the lab. This evidence may be suppressed ...
The exclusionary rule prevents the government from using most evidence gathered illegally. It usually comes into play when evidence is obtained in violation of a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure. For example, a murder weapon can't be used at trial if police illegally searched a defendant’s home to recover it. An officer generally must obtain a valid search warrant and follow proper procedures for a piece of evidence to be admissible at trial. The rule may also be triggered by police violations of the Fifth or Sixth Amendment.
There are certain instances where evidence may still be admissible even when police overstep the boundaries or fail to follow protocol, including the following exceptions: Inevitable Discovery : If the judge rules that an illegally seized piece of evidence eventually would have been discovered through legal ...
Additionally, the “ fruit of the poisonous tree ” doctrine holds that otherwise admissible evidence, testimony, or even confessions may be excluded from trial if they resulted from an illegal search or some other constitutional violation.