In our last article, Florida criminal defense lawyer John Musca discussed how some other states have structured their laws to deal with marijuana. We also discussed some of the penalties for possession of marijuana under Florida. In this article we will finish our examination of how Florida law deals with marijuana possession and sale.
Under Florida Law, possession or sale of more than 25 pounds of marijuana (Florida Statute 893.135) is considered trafficking and is punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison. As with its definition of trafficking for other drugs, many people are surprised to learn that the crime of trafficking in Florida does not require a person to have either sold or intended to sell the drugs. Mere possession is enough to prove trafficking under Florida law if the controlled substance is above a certain weight.
A mandatory minimum sentence under Florida law means that a judge is unable to reduce that person's sentence from the three year minimum - even if there are mitigating factors once the person is convicted of the crime. Minimum mandatory sentences, therefore, shift the discretion in how a person is sentenced from judges to prosecutors. Sometimes, a prosecutor may offer a defendant a sentence more lenient than the mandatory minimum under exceptional circumstances, but a person who is not offered a plea deal from the prosecutor and who is subsequently convicted of trafficking has no wiggle room to ask the judge for a lower sentence. In addition to Florida's mandatory minimum sentence for possession or sale of more than 25 pounds of marijuana, there is also a mandatory minimum seven year prison sentence for possession or sale of between 2,000 and 7,000 pounds of marijuana as well as a 15 year minimum sentence for possession or sale of 10,000 pounds or more. Using the estimated average dosage of marijuana of 1 gram, 10,000 pounds of marijuana is over 4.5 million doses, or enough marijuana for a daily smoker to smoke for over 12,000 years.
