WHY PINELLAS COUNTY FLORIDA DRUG ARRESTS & INVESTIGATIONS WILL SOON SPIKE & HOW TO SURVIVE

For the past eight years the office of theAttorney General has sought to tamp down needless drug arrests and investigations especially in Federal marijuana trafficking cases and drug cases that did not involve violence or the use of firearms. Further, at least from the top, Federal prosecutors were directed toward the goal of fair federal drug sentencing with less reliance on statutory minimum mandatory sentencing and the typically harsh federal drug sentencing. 

It's likely that Attorney General nominee Senator Sessions or someone of his mindset will soon change the direction of the Attorney General's office. Senator Sessions has denounced all those who use marijuana as "stupid" even those who happen to live in one of the many states where marijuana use is now legal. Further, he proudly cites his time as a federal prosecutor in the eighties as being "a lieutenant in the war on drugs." It's disconcerting because most people directly involved in that American war on drugs including the judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers who waged it, are in agreement that people's lives were needlessly destroyed and ruined because of widespread federal prosecutions that brought long prison sentences. In fact the current Justice Department has done what it can to mitigate the damage done during the anti-drug crusade by reducing sentences where appropriate.

The new focus of the Justice Department will be to make more Florida arrests in places like Pinellas County and to severely punish not only violent drug traffickers but also small quantity drug users. The punitive use of the federal criminal court system will inevitably draw more federal prison time for people who are nonviolent drug users using resources that should be used to punish those who commit violent crimes. 

If you've been investigated, arrested or under possible grand jury indictment or scrutiny for drugs in the Middle District of Florida in Pinellas or Hillsborough County you'll need an effective, reliable Clearwater defense attorney familiar with federal criminal law to help guide you toward the best possible outcome.

FEDERAL PROSECUTORS TOLD TO NO LONGER ENFORCE MARIJUANA LAWS IN STATES WHERE IT'S LEGALIZED

Your favorite Clearwater criminal defense attorney just obtained a memorandum sent today to each federal prosecutor working in every United States Attorney's office. The memorandum outlines the factors which every prosecutor must now consider before pursuing marijuana trafficking cases.

Here are the six critical factors to be used by prosecutors in the future for every Department of Justice prosecution as delineated in the memorandum:

Is Cannabis Legal?

1. Preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors. 

2. Preventing revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels. 

3. Preventing the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law from being dispersed to states where it is not legal. 

4. Preventing state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for trafficking in other illegal drugs or other illegal activity. 

5. Preventing violence and firearm use. 

6. Preventing DUI impairment from marijuana. Preventing the growing of marijuana on public parks or other public land or other federal property. 

What is most interesting is the fourth paragraph which represents a sea change of policy from Attorney General Holder's previous guidelines for his prosecutors. 

Now state authorized marijuana activity will be monitored to prevent its use in other illegal drugs or other illegal activity, whereas before even if a state had legalized marijuana, the federal government viewed the marijuana growing as illegal activity subject to the federal law of drug trafficking in itself. 

Clearly citizens in states that do not allow marijuana will not be as likely as other citizens to be subject to the harsh minimum mandatory sentences for marijuana drug trafficking cases, which should bring some disparity of sentencing arguments as well as disparity of prosecution arguments into play by enterprising defense attorneys in every jurisdiction.

Here in Tampa Bay, Florida we can only hope that a new constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana will not only make the drug legal for medicinal purposes, but will stop at least some overzealous federal prosecutions that often result in unfair minimum mandatory prison sentences that judges do not have the discretion to go under. Because prosecutors always had more discretion under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, this roll back of harsh sentencing by Attorney General Holder will save many people from being branded as criminal by our government.

AMERICA'S WAR ON DRUGS DESTROYS ANOTHER LIFE WITH THE ARREST OF A PROMINENT FLORIDA SURGEON

Even eminent Surgeons are not immune to the lure of drugs nor to drug's destructive power. Yet America's war on drugs and harsh mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws have ruined many more lives than have the drugs themselves.

The Tampa Bay Surgeon, Dr. Carpenter, was arrested by Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputies for multiple counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. And as absurd as this sounds under the prevailing Florida law the Doctor is fortunate in how the offense was charged. 

Van Gogh, Prescription Fraud Doctor

In many cases involving Prescription Fraud the total number of pills sheer weight is added together. In this case there were "at least 500 valium pills" according to deputies. Based on weight even as few as thirty pills is often sufficient to trigger a Drug Trafficking charge with a minimum mandatory sentence in Tampa Bay, Florida. 

It would be interesting to know the criterial, if any, which law enforcement officers use to determine when it's appropriate to file Drug Trafficking charges. Shouldn't there be written law enforcement policy as to what factors officers should take into account in how to charge or not charge Drug Trafficking cases? At least Tampa Bay Judges have some understanding that drug treatment at the Pinellas County Drug Court is a better answer than forcing addicts to spend useless prison time.

Needless to say, the prosecutors will use the threat of a Trafficking charge to leverage a forced plea of guilty. It's as easy as amending the Information, which is the formal charging document filed by prosecutors, to include a Drug Trafficking charge should the Doctor attempt to fight the charges. No wonder a recent study established to the shame of the American Criminal Judicial System that over 96% of those charged with a crime plead guilty in this country.

Doctor Carpenter's arrest for valium prescription fraud came about when he allegedly passed prescriptions for himself using the name and the DEA number of another doctor apparently without that Doctor's permission according to press accounts:

Pinellas County Sheriff's investigators received information that Dr. Richard Carpenter had been calling in prescriptions for Valium (Diazepam) for himself since October 2012. 

Authorities say Carpenter used the name of a doctor he knew and his DEA number to get the prescriptions illegally using his health care insurance to pay the cost of the prescription.
Investigators say Carpenter obtained at least 500 Valium 5mg pills.

Somehow that using of the insurance really bothers me, but a juror might see things differently. If the Surgeon fights this case all the way to a jury trial, the insurance might just be what sets him free. After all Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorneys could successfully argue that the Surgeon wouldn't involve the insurance company unless he thought the prescriptions were valid.

LAW ENFORCEMENT WILL FILL PILL BOTTLES WITH GPS TRACKING DEVICES TO CATCH DRUG ABUSERS

The Government's escalating battle to stop the abuse of oxycodone now includes baiting bottles in pharmacies with GPS tracking systems. According to press reports the baited bottles will be handed out during pharmacy thefts and robberies in the hope of later tracking down the perpetrators.

Law enforcement is also asking industry researchers to explore the possibility of applying nanotechnology in such a way that individual 'bait' tablets could be tracked by GPS.

GPS Enhanced Pill Bottles

The idea is similar to the red dye explosives banks throw into bags of cash when robbed. The dye makes it that much easier to catch the robbers. Unfortunately it takes weeks for your favorite Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney to rub off the red dye when making timely withdrawals, but never mind my legal problems.  

Couldn't the banks use GPS as well? Well, they do. 

But they're smart enough not to advertise the fact as it wouldn't deter the robbery only force the robbers to remove the device. 

Clearly, growing technology is taking away more of our privacy rights. Yet folks who rob pharmacies and banks probably don't have much room to complain. But for the rest of us imagine how are privacy rights will be diminished when the industry complies with law enforcement's request to create a nano GPS system. And it's important to know when electronic surveillance with GPS, video or audio is unlawful.

The Government has tried harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses which have not only failed to curtail addiction and abuse, but have ruined many more lives than the drugs. In Florida law enforcement officers charged with protecting the public have recently abused their public trust by using improper tactics including secret video surveillance, false search warrants and lying while attempting to gain unlawful entry into a dwelling.

WHAT IS THE SURPRISING FEDERAL CRIME WOMEN COMMIT IN GREATER NUMBERS THAN MEN AND WHY?

While parsing thru the new fiscal year report from the Federal Sentencing Commission, your favorite Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney found a surprising statistic struggling to be set free among the gender based findings. The report unexpectedly notes that women outnumber men in only one category of crime in Federal Criminal Sentencing, which crime do you think it is? 

Degas, Mary Cassatt & Cash, 1880

Here's a hint. It's not drug trafficking though at nearly 30% of all federal offenses women commit, it represents by far the highest number of women offenders. 

Yet the number of men committing federal drug trafficking far exceeds women who are often used by men as low level operatives or drug mules to transport or sell drugs.

So that leaves us with the intriguing question of which Federal Crime women commit in greater numbers than men. As the Sentencing Commission report notes it's embezzlement:

In the fiscal year 86.5 percent of all offenders were men, compared with 86.5 percent in fiscal year 2007, and 86.0 percent in fiscal year 2002. Among female offenders, the most common crime was drug trafficking (28.8% of all women offenders). Embezzlement was the only crime for which female offenders outnumber male offenders (50.3% to 49.7%)

Before you decide to hire only men to keep those accounts of your business safe, lets look at why women commit federal embezzlement more than men. 
A look at the Federal Code Chapter 31 for Theft and Embezzlement reveals that there's a blurred line between mere Theft and the more sophisticated theft within an Embezzlement. Embezzlement is a theft that also violates a fiduciary duty of trust to an employer or other entity. I suspect that women happen to be in greater positions of trust, not only because they're more trustworthy, but because their jobs may tend to place them in closer proximity to liquid assets, such as the teller's access to cash at a bank. 
A recurring problem in complex Federal Grand Jury Embezzlement Indictments of alleged white collar crime in Tampa Bay Florida Federal Court is over-broad statutes that result in over-criminalization where Defendants are charged with crimes such as embezzlement without proven criminal intent nor knowledge that what was done was illegal. For example, a company book keeper is ordered by the Company's Chief Financial Officer to keep a second set of books for unknown reasons. Should she be charged in a federal embezzlement scheme?
If you've been charged with a white collar crime such as fraud, forgery, theft or embezzlement, you should seek the advice of a Clearwater Criminal Defense Lawyer who will find the best possible solutions to protect your future.