Florida Mandatory Minimums for Drug Offenses

Throwing the book at you.

Florida’s war on drugs is relentless. Florida’s lawmakers continue to have mandatory minimums for drug offenses even though they don’t work. Even still Florida takes the same old approach to drug crimes sentencing that became popular in the 1980s. The Florida mandatory minimum drug sentences completely remove a judge’s discretion in sentencing.

A minimum mandatory sentence can be as low as 3 years or as high as 25 years, depending on the charge.  And those minimum mandatory sentences apply even to people without any prior criminal record or prior felony convictions. Additionally, they don’t take into account any of the factors a judge would normally consider when sentencing a person for any crime.

Instead, a judge has no choice but to issue the prison sentence the legislature dictates even if the person before the court doesn’t deserve that fate. 

If you have drug trafficking charges pending in Florida, your future is very much at stake. Therefore, you should seek the advice of a criminal defense lawyer who has a long history of helping his clients avoid mandatory minimum drug sentences in Florida.  Rolle & Kelly has over two decades of experience defending people just like you.