Drugs

Oklahoma trooper stops a rental car for going a whopping 4 mph over the speed limit, begins preparing a warning, but calls in a canine unit after the driver and passenger give allegedly inconsistent travel plans. Yikes! Dog alerts and officers find 100 pounds of meth. Tenth Circuit: Arguable inconsistencies do not alone amount to reasonable suspicion, so officers had no basis for extending the stop with a dog sniff.

Defendant: Yes, the gov't proved there was a conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States. And, yes, the gov't proved that I, an aircraft mechanic, entered the avionics compartment of an airplane to retrieve something  that I likely knew was illegal. But they didn't prove I knew it was narcotics. Second Circuit: You're right.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Sentencing Commission released its Preliminary FY25 Third Quarterly Data Report, containing cumulative sentencing data from October 1, 2024, though June 30, 2025.

Midland, Texas, prosecutor's office investigator told jury a reliable source told him that someone named Cali was selling drugs from a hotel and other law enforcement agents told him Cali was the defendant. Defendant: hearsay! Prosecutor: testimony is admissible to give jury context. Fifth Circuit: Not admissible. Introducing testimonial hearsay of non-testifying witnesses violates the Confrontation Clause. And since we've had to say this a lot as of late, "we are concerned that the government has repeatedly failed to take the lesson."

A Maryland federal judge has approved federal prosecutors' request to bar any discussion of cannabis legalization from the upcoming trial of a man indicted for criminal conspiracy to traffic marijuana from California to Maryland (view full article).

In a case that could have easily sprung from the wild imagination of law school hypotheticals, the Fifth Circuit holds that hitching a ride across the border in a car with 283 pounds of marijuana, is not, strictly speaking, possessing marijuana. The two men could really have been hitchhikers. Mere presence in the area where the drugs are found is not a crime. Convictions vacated. Dissent: Shut the front door. Two hundred. Eighty-three. Pounds.

A California police union executive director allegedly ran a drug ring from her home and used her office computer and UPS account to order and distribute opioids and other drugs, federal officials charge (view full article).

President Biden on Thursday pardoned all people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be a Schedule 1 drug like heroin and LSD, saying that “makes no sense” (article available here).

The pardons will clear about 6,500 people who were convicted on federal charges of simple possession of marijuana from 1992 to 2021 and thousands more who were convicted of possession in the District of Columbia.

This year is turning out to be another remarkable year for new record relief enactments. In just the first six months of 2021, 25 states enacted no fewer than 51 laws authorizing sealing or expungement of criminal records, with another 5 states enrolling 11 bills that await a governor’s signature (view full article).

Oklahoma police stop car for traffic violations, search it, and discover 29 pounds of meth stashed in secret compartments (which carried a wholesale value of about $75k). The driver-husband knew, but there's no evidence that the passenger-wife did. Nevertheless, a jury convicts her of conspiracy to distribute meth and interstate travel in aid of drug trafficking. Tenth Circuit: The prosecution needed to prove that the wife at least knew about the meth, and speculation doesn't substitute for evidence.