In a series of ongoing posts, our blog has been exploring how the federal courts treat drug charges in an attempt to help people better understand how this seemingly arcane and often unforgiving criminal justice system works.To that end, we've explored how the...
The Department of Justice has made headlines over the last few years for its dogged -- and perhaps somewhat unusual -- pursuit of Tennessee-based FedEx. Specifically, federal prosecutors indicted the shipping giant on a host of criminal charges, including conspiracy...
Though the general public's attitude about drugs continues to evolve, legislators are often slow to respond and reflect those changes in our laws. Here in Illinois, lawmakers have grudgingly extended our state's Medical Cannabis Pilot Program through the summer of...
In a previous post, we began discussing how the Controlled Substances Act classifies drugs into five separate schedules based on such factors as the drug's accepted medical use, potential for abuse and potential for addiction.We also briefly touched on the fact that...
People are often so caught off-guard or so distraught in the immediate aftermath of an arrest on drug-related charges that they understandably fail to make a mental note of what law enforcement agency actually carried out the arrest. Even though this may seem like a...
Unless it has ever happened to you, you might never realize that police can do more to a person they suspect of a drug crime than simply arrest them. Police in Illinois also have the power to seize a suspect’s money, cars, even their home. And they do not have...
Marijuana is a staple of the world of drug crimes, though in controversial fashion. Over the years, the calls for marijuana to be decriminalized have grown louder and the topic is no longer on the fringe, as if it shouldn't be talked about. To the contrary, the topic...
When someone is charged with a drug crime, it is understandable to think that the accused individual is in a lot of trouble -- almost as if it is a foregone conclusion that he or she will be found guilty. There are a couple of things wrong with this line of thinking....
Illinois has a long fought the manufacture, marketing and use of synthetic marijuana. In our article Chicago Cracks Down on Retailers Selling Synthetic Drugs, we mentioned that the city was among the first to make it a criminal offense to sell the drug and that the...
About a week before the Super Bowl, USA Today published an article about synthetic marijuana use among NFL players. The point of the article was less that the drug is illegal in most states and under federal law than it was to take the NFL to task for not adding...
