Increasingly, driving while intoxicated charges are being filed against people who drive—not under the influence of alcohol—but under the alleged influence of marijuana. Often enough, a warrant is sought for the person’s blood so that[…]
Category: Drug Charges
Marijuana Classification: Washington, et al. v. Jeff Sessions
It is well-known that Attorney General Jeff Sessions questionably linked the current opioid crisis to marijuana use (“The DEA said that a huge percentage of heroin addiction starts with prescriptions,” Sessions stated, “That may be[…]
Heroin and Opioids In Denton 2017
In 1976, Texas adopted the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) guidelines, to get detailed, reliable crime statistics. In addition to UCR, there are several additional statistics that police departments must report—family violence, sexual assault, hate crimes,[…]
“Don’t Take the Brown Acid”: on festivals testing drugs
In what has become a well-known quote from the 1969 Woodstock festival, an announcement was made from the stage that: “the brown acid that is circulating…is not specifically too good. It is suggested that[…]
SITSA Act: adding a new penalty group to federal drug charges
On June 8, 2017, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California) revealed a proposed bill they had drafted together, clumsily named the “Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act of 2017” or[…]
Can the Police Search…?: Quick Answers to Search Questions
Summer has begun, and Denton, like many “college towns” now seems to have far fewer people around and cars on the road. I drive by Texas Woman’s University and by the University of North Texas[…]
New Drugs and NIST
On June 6, 2017, one of the nation’s largest databases of chemical signatures, NIST, announced that it had added 25,000 chemical signatures to its already massive database of 240,000 signatures. NIST stores the molecular “fingerprints”[…]
Drugs In Cars
Most arrests for drug offenses do not arise from a carefully planned surveillance operation where police have sought warrants to place GPS trackers on vehicles, or collected trash outside the residence to go through later[…]
Drug Tests and Marijuana
Commonly, I am asked how long marijuana stays in a person’s system. This is a bad question, because it is imprecise—by system, do you mean in a person’s urine, hair, or blood? If the concern[…]
UPDATE: War on Drugs 2017
UPDATE: On February 3, 2017, during a daily press briefing, Sean Spicer, press secretary, fielded a question from the press regarding “the problem with synthetic fentanyl being cooked up with labs in the Northeast.” Spicer[…]