Tampa Cocaine Defense Lawyer

Brad Post: Welcome to the FloridaDefense.com Podcast. We are speaking to Tampa Cocaine Defense Lawyer Mike Kenny with the Bauer, Crider, and Parry Law Firm. How are you doing, Mike?

 

Mike Kenny: I’m doing well. How are you?

 

BP: Well let’s kind of talk about today. We’ve talked about an overview of the three different categories of drug crimes. We’ve talked about marijuana. Now let’s talk about cocaine. Crack cocaine. Is it kind of the same? Different categories?

 

MK: Yes, we do have different categories. The first thing we should point out is that cocaine or crack, as a lot of people might refer to it—that hard, rock-like substance that has a cocaine mixture in there—both are treated exactly the same. There isn’t a harsher punishment for one versus the other.

 

BP: Whether it’s a powder or a rock, I guess?

 

MK: Exactly. Whether it’s in powder or rock form, what’s punished in the state of Florida is the ingredient that makes it illegal, and it doesn’t matter because with the way the statute is written, it’s “any mixture thereof.” So it can be a mixture of anything, and if it has cocaine in it, then you have yourself in a situation where you’ve got a possession of a controlled substance. It kind of reminds me—talking about that “any mixture thereof”—when I was a prosecutor several years ago, I had a very unique trial where an individual literally had a bag of baby powder. It was 99.9% baby powder, and for whatever reason—and you kind of figure out why these folks do what they do—but for whatever reason, there was just a pinch of cocaine added to that powder. And I don’t know if the pinch was added so it would look like it for testing, but it was going to be sold to basically trick someone who was buying it. But whatever the reason, there was just this very small amount, and I remember when we sent that item away for testing, they said they had to take several testings that came out powder, powder, powder, powder, and there was just one small—I mean not even maybe one-tenth of a gram that they were able to find—and it tested positive for cocaine. Now, I can tell you that, if you wanted to be an absolute literalist to the statute, because there was one-tenth of a gram of cocaine in there “and any mixture thereof”, and then you weigh the entire amount—and the entire amount could be 30 grams or 40 grams—that person was facing a trafficking charge of cocaine for having one-tenth of a gram, a very decimally small amount of cocaine mixed in this bag. I will say the prosecutor has discretion, and in that particular set of circumstances, we decided not to prosecute that person with a trafficking charge. But it’s a dangerous scenario when people start thinking all they have to be concerned about is the amount of the drug. But it’s not the amount of the drug, it’s whatever it’s mixed with to make it the product that is that’s penalized, and that’s what’s weighed—the total product.

 

BP: So is there the misdemeanor, the felony, the trafficking with cocaine?

 

MK: Well, with cocaine, there is no misdemeanor possession charge. Now, there is the paraphernalia used to hold the cocaine, to store the cocaine, and to maybe ingest the cocaine—like a pipe that might be used to smoke the cocaine or a crack rock—that would be a misdemeanor. But the actual substance itself is always punished as a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in the Department of Corrections. And then, there’s the other level, which is the trafficking level. Like I mentioned in a podcast or two ago, trafficking can be accomplished in a couple of different ways. It can be accomplished by transporting drugs into the state. It can be constituted by selling, so if you sell a certain amount and it’s over a certain weight. Or it can be just simple possession, and when I say simple possession, I mean just being in possession of an item that weighs a certain amount is enough to basically get yourself situated with a trafficking charge. So the minimum amount you have to have to qualify for a trafficking charge is 28 grams. With 28 grams or more, but less than 200 grams—with that comes a three-year minimum mandatory prison sentence if convicted and a $50,000 fine. The next level up from that is 200 grams, so if a person has 200 grams or more but less than 400 grams, that carries with it a seven-year minimum mandatory prison sentence and a $100,000 fine. The next category up from that is 400 grams or more but less than 150 kilograms, and that carries with it a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. And the last one is 150 kilograms or more commits a first-degree felony of trafficking cocaine, and you