DRUG POLICIES

Drug policies and mandatory sentencing differences in Texas, California, and Florida

Drug policies and mandatory sentencing differences in Texas, California, and Florida

The Obama administration recently announced it would defer to state medical marijuana laws and stop federal prosecutions of patients and providers who comply with them.  In California, the tanking economy inspired Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to call for debating marijuana taxation and regulation, a bill was introduced in Sacramento to do just that, and four separate ballot initiatives are circulating to allow voters the chance to decide the issue for themselves. (Christie 2007)

In 2008, the police arrested 847,864 people nationwide for marijuana violations, according to the 2008 FBI Uniform Crime Report.  Pot arrests represent fully half of all drug arrests reported in the United States.  The overwhelming majority — a whopping 89 percent — were charged with possession only.  Most striking, the marijuana arrest rate in the United States has nearly tripled since 1991.

More people are being arrested for pot crimes than ever; they are young and disproportionately nonwhite. Examples from both coasts illustrate this.  In California, according to the Centre on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, crime arrest rates have generally plummeted statewide from 1990 to 2008 by an average of 40 percent.  Drug possession arrests for everything but marijuana collectively fell by nearly 30 percent.  But during that same 18-year period, arrests for marijuana possession in California skyrocketed 127 percent.  In 2008, more Californians were arrested for pot offenses than any year since decriminalization took effect 34 years ago.

Similarly, New York state decriminalized simple marijuana possession in the 1970s.  But under Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, New York City has become one of the marijuana arrest capitals of the world — 40,300 arrests last year. In the years between 1997 and 2008, the NYPD made 12 times as many pot possession arrests as in the previous 12 years, according to a study by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

During the 1990s, Florida and North Carolina had mandatory presumptive sentencing guidelines; effective October 1998, the Florida Legislature repealed the sentencing guidelines and the Sentencing Commission, and established a new Criminal Punishment Code. (Lenton 2008)

Mandatory drug sentencing laws came about in the 1980s in the height of the War on Drugs. The seizure of 3,906 pounds of cocaine, valued then at over $100 million wholesale, from a Miami International Airport hangar on March 9, 1982 brought about the public's awareness of the Medellin Cartel -- Colombian drug traffickers working together -- and changed U.S. law enforcement's approach towards the drug trade -- and sparked new life into the War on Drugs. (Lenton 2005)

Drug laws, also known as narcotics or controlled substance laws, can vary by state. Texas is known to have especially strict narcotics laws. Many Texas drug laws can be found in the Texas Penal Code. A general knowledge of the Texas Penal Code can help you avoid criminal charges and begin to understand the differences the drug laws of Texas and those of other ...