BRITISH TEENAGER GRIMLY FACES LIFE IN FLORIDA PRISON - AMERICA'S WAR ON DRUGS DESTROYS ANOTHER LIFE

Florida's harsh Drug Laws and outrageous penalties are making headlines in Britain. The latest case involves a girl who just turned 18 a few days after her arrest for bringing in cocaine as a clueless mule. Mercy? Justice? Leniency? 
Of course not, this is Florida, where even your favorite Clearwater Drug Attorney never fails to be amazed and astonished that Prosecutors - not impartial Judges - ultimately determine the length of drug sentencing by how the Prosecution initially files the charge. 
Do the Prosecutors believe that the Juvenile did this on her own? Clearly she was a witless drug mule. Incredibly, the girl would face less time if accused of a murder in the cracked sentencing structure of the State of Florida.
Our Beautiful Sunshine State has politicized prosecutors who determined that Justice could best be served by treating the girl as an adult although she was just a mule and although she was a minor at the time of the crime. She faces up to life in prison with a 15 year Mandatory Minimum Sentence in Florida.


Here's are excerpts from the recent article from England's Daily Telegraph:

Niles, a student, told police she did not know what drug she was carrying but suspected she was involved in some illegal activity, according to an arrest report. The cocaine was hidden in cake mix boxes found in her luggage.

Miami-Dade detective Nubia Azrak wrote that Niles "suspected that the activity she was involved in was suspicious but she did not question it".Police said the teen, who is from London, was picked for screening by customs agents. A police source said: "She is a classic drug mule who thought she could easily bring the drugs through an airport undetected."

Prosecutors said Niles was a "poster child" for how easily drug smugglers can corrupt young people.

In a follow up the Telegraph later reported: Her mother Sonia said:"She was stitched up. She a teenager who fell into a trap." Miami Judge Jose Fernandez set Niles' bail at $505,000 and her trial for February 6, 2012
British teenager caught smuggling 30lbs of cocaine into America - Telegraph
Attorney for Juvenile Pinellas County Florida
The American War on Drugs - The Becker-Posner Blog
Global war on drugs has failed,' key panel says - US news - Crime & courts - msnbc.com
Judge Napolitano - The War on Drugs has been a Disaster
British teen ‘poster child’ for American drugs war faces life in jail | Parent Pages
London teenager accused of cocaine smuggling 
London teenager accused of cocaine smuggling in US - Americas - World - The Independent
Pictures from Alcohol Prohibition | StoptheDrugWar.org

A recent photograph shows the Mayor of Miami with Law Enforcement destroying illicit drugs.

Prohibition in the United States (sometimes referred to as the Noble Experiment) was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of intoxicating liquors, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the 18th amendment to the Constitution. As with the modern "War on Drugs" the law destroyed more lives than the intoxicants ever could.