Author Archives: Jay Butchko
There Are Worse Opioids Than Fentanyl, and One of Them Is Here in Florida
Lots of things are terrifying, but they are so far away that thinking about them is more interesting than scary. Sure, all the rivers and lakes in Florida are full of alligators, but they do not go out of their way to attack humans; if you see one in the distance, you can calmly… Read More »
Prosecutorial Misconduct in Florida Drug Cases
You do not have to prove that you are innocent to avoid a criminal conviction. In some cases, police confiscate pills from a defendant during a traffic stop or search of the defendant’s residence, the crime lab determines that the pills contain controlled substances, and the defendant gets acquitted or the court drops the… Read More »
Does the Evidence Incriminate You or Your Twin?
At first it sounds like a Florida Man tall tale. Police executed a search warrant at a Florida residence because they had seen an Instagram video that they were sure had been filmed there. The video showed a young man lip syncing in front of the bathroom mirror, and a firearm was visible in… Read More »
What Happens If Police Go to Your House to Search for Drugs, but They Find Evidence of Other Crimes?
Pursuant to the Fourth Amendment, police cannot search your residence or other private property of yours unless there is a compelling reason to do so. In order to search your property legally, they must obtain a search warrant, and to do this, they must convince a judge that the search will yield specific items… Read More »
Directed Verdicts in Florida Drug Cases
In criminal cases, jurors must decide whether the defendant is innocent or guilty of the charges at hand, and the law includes several safeguards to prevent outside factors from influencing the jurors’ decisions. Jury selection is often a protracted process as prosecutors and defense lawyers examine potential jurors to determine whether they are capable… Read More »
Is Scopolamine Illegal?
The five drug schedules of the Controlled Substances Act only tell you how lawmakers think that the risks and benefits of a drug compare to each other; they are not based on a mathematical formula, such as Schedule I being reserved for drugs where a tiny dose can be lethal. For example, MDMA is… Read More »
The Fallibility of Memory Is Not the Only Problem With Eyewitness Testimony
These days, people seem aware that all humans have biases, although the circumstances surrounding when a person works this fact into conversation reveal a lot about that person’s own biases. On the one hand, the court system has safeguards in place to prevent the biases of the judge and jury from standing in the… Read More »
FDA Votes Against Approving MDMA
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must approve every ingredient before it can be used as an ingredient in a food or pharmaceutical drug. It is the regulatory body that decides, among other things, which food dyes are legally considered edible, thereby determining which radiant hues can be present in the candies in your… Read More »
MDMA Remains a Schedule I Controlled Substance for Now
In Florida, it is not hard to find people who hold unorthodox scientific views or who are generally skeptical of biomedical research. You probably know someone who thinks that common food ingredients are the source of all their physical and emotional discomfort or someone who believes that weed cures every disease that is worth… Read More »
How Many Degrees of Separation Are You From a Life Sentence for Drug Conspiracy?
Florida law makes a lot of threats, and Floridians happily ignore them. Lawmakers threaten to impose life sentences for drug trafficking, while Floridians go on injecting, ingesting, and inhaling with little regard for which drugs are on which schedule of controlled substances, and which drugs are even present in the powders and pills they… Read More »
