The sale of drugs within a certain number of feet, often 1,000, of specific designated locations has been ramping up sentencing for nearly three decades, says Florida criminal attorney John Musca. This means that a person convicted of selling marijuana four blocks away from a middle school, even if the sale is between middle-aged adults on a Sunday during summer vacation, will likely face a more stringent sentence than a person who sold marijuana in a deserted field, miles from civilization. Proximity to schools, churches, and other locations has been a point of focus for sentencing in Florida for years, and the state legislature regularly strengthens the laws to apply to more offenders.
The Florida criminal lawyers at Musca Law have followed the evolution of these drug laws. They began to take shape in the early 1980s. Senator Strom Thurmond introduced a bill into the United States Senate proposing to make selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school a federal crime. Congress passed such a law two years later and, in 1986, many states began enacting copycat laws after the cocaine death of basketball star Len Bias. The Florida Legislature enacted its own version of the law in 1987 and in 1989 added a three year mandatory minimum sentence for selling, manufacturing, and purchasing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school.
In 1990s, the Florida Legislature changed the scope of these laws to apply to other locations, such as parks, colleges, public housing, vocational schools, day care centers, churches and other religious centers, and vocational schools. The drug-free zones were initially 200 feet, but expanded to 1,000 feet from these locations in 2003. Four years ago, assisted living facilities were added to the list. Interestingly, several studies have shown that these laws do not appear to deter drug crime in any way, and that the drug-free zones often blanket entire cities.
