Author Archives: Jay Butchko
A Criminal Defense Lawyer Can Make The Difference Between Drug Court And Juvenile Detention
The beginning of every new year serves as a reminder that the days for a parent are long, but the years are short. It seems like yesterday that your children were harmless infants whose only means of causing you to worry were by refraining from eating, sleeping, or pooping as you would want them… Read More »
Meet Central Florida’s Own Magic Mushroom
Florida’s native flora and fauna bring delight to locals and tourists alike, and invasive species are a peril to the Sunshine State’s ecosystem. Florida panthers and key deer have become vanishingly rare, and in certain parts of Florida, Australian melaleuca trees outnumber native mangroves and the green iguana, native to Central and South America,… Read More »
Three Orange County Men Receive Prison Sentences For Fentanyl Trafficking
Fentanyl is the deadliest drug; a tiny crumb of the stuff, barely visible to the naked eyes, can kill. Drug trafficking is the scariest drug offense charge; in some circumstances, a conviction for drug trafficking can result in a life sentence in prison. Therefore, even though the sentences resulting from a case where three… Read More »
Two Defendants Face Drug Trafficking Charges After Police Search House In North Port
What are the most common ways that people get caught selling drugs? Some drug busts ensue after someone sells drugs to an undercover officer and then gets arrested and, as part of a plea deal, provides information about other people involved in the drug trafficking operation. In other cases, people pose with drugs and… Read More »
Criminal Cases For Driving Under The Influence Of Cannabis Are As Subjective As You Think They Are
Under Florida laws in their current form, the penalties for driving under the influence of cannabis are the same as the penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol. As far as the law is concerned, DUI is DUI, whether the substance of which you are under the influence is marijuana, alcohol, a prescription… Read More »
What Does The CDC’s New Report About Antihistamines And Opioid Overdose Have To Do With Your Drug Case?
It seems like every time you open your favorite social media apps, people are sharing content about how a harmless substance you use every day is actually deadly or about how someone is conspiring to poison you and your loved ones. We will all be better off if you ignore 99 percent of this… Read More »
Mixed Messages About Take-Home Medications For Opioid Treatment
You are not to blame if you are confused by federal and state drug laws. In some cases, a drug can be legal while one that is very similar to it is illegal, or the same drug may be legal in some contexts but not others. There are even instances where whether a certain… Read More »
Drug Possession Means Even Bigger Legal Trouble When Children Are Present
Drug courts and criminal laws have begun to move away from the rhetoric of the War on Drugs and to treat the criminal offense of drug possession as a symptom of substance use disorder. The crime has no victims except the defendant; if you illegally possess controlled substances, you are not endangering anyone except… Read More »
Researchers Are Working On A Fentanyl Vaccine
Hope and fear emerge from the most unexpected places in the opioid epidemic. When pill mills replaced street corner heroin as the scariest source of opioids, who knew that heroin would make a comeback? Fentanyl is a terrifyingly efficient killer, but naloxone is equally efficient at saving lives. After policymakers argued for decades about… Read More »
Why Do Police Drop Charges In Drug Cases?
You may have heard the scary statistic that 90 percent of defendants in criminal cases plead guilty, but that does not mean that, if you get arrested on suspicion of a drug crime, the chances that you will emerge from the incident without a criminal record are less than ten percent. This figure does… Read More »
