If you are convicted of a crime that involves the use or selling of drugs, you need to make sure you have proper legal representation. You cannot afford to go without proper legal assistance in this case because a drug charge can carry serious consequences.
An Ongoing Concern
During the past ten years, drug laws and drug crimes have received a lot of attention in the press. State and federal laws prohibit the manufacture, possession, and sale of certain controlled substances. These substances include drugs, such as methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy.
This type of focus is even more pronounced when you consider that drug abuse costs society around $100 billion annually. A drug crime attorney in Orange, TX, then handles cases that involve accidental death and injury and criminal behavior. The aforementioned costs also extend to medical care, dependency treatment, and mental health care.
Determining a Drug’s Legality
When you consult with an Orange drug crime attorney, you will find that a drug’s legality is often dependent on how it is used. For instance, amphetamines are often used to treat attention deficit disorder while barbiturates help relieve anxiety. Even marijuana is used to alleviate nausea attributed to chemotherapy. However, unsupervised and unprescribed uses of drugs present a threat to society and people overall. Lawmakers, over time, have stepped in to regulate the abuse, use, manufacture, and sale of illegal substances.
Therefore, you need to talk to a drug crime attorney to see how a state or federal law affects your case. Usually, federal drug convictions cover trafficking while state arrests concentrate on possession. Out of state and local arrests, about 50% are for the possession of marijuana.
Talk to a drug crime attorney even if you expect your punishment to be less severe. He or she can help you reduce the time you serve a sentence or remain in jail, especially in the case of a first-time misdemeanor. The punishment you receive greatly depends on your criminal history background and your age.