A Drug Crime Attorney’s Warning: Do Not Let Drug Treatment Land You in Prison

As Criminal Drug Law Attorneys  throughout the nation understand, there is a constant battle within criminal and drug courts as to the role punishment and rehabilitation should play in determining fair criminal sentences for drug users. Unfortunately, with prison populations swelling disproportionately with inmates incarcerated for drug possession crimes, the view of many criminal defense lawyers is that the justice pendulum  of our criminal drug laws has swung too far in the direction of punishment as opposed to rehabilitation.

Too many good people suffering drug addictions can unfortunately find themselves in legal jeopardy for seeking out treatment during the course of a criminal prosecution or in some unfortunate cases for making admissions to drug activities when seeking treatment. Common sense dictates that a judge and/or prosecutor will view a Defendant’s treatment during the course of a prosecution favorably and will issue a sentence accordingly. As criminal drug attorneys are aware, such pro active treatment is usually not only recommended but a critical part of securing a criminal drug law sentence that furthers a course of drug treatment on an inpatient or outpatient basis as opposed to the destructive force of imprisonment on such people’s lives.

Criminal drug defense attorneys know that prison should often be the last course of action for many drug users whose inability to deal with real life predicaments or untreated mental difficulties have caused them to resort to drugs or narcotics in the first place. However, as most criminal drug lawyers will tell you, too often, the self interest of a drug law prosecutor is not always looking out for the best interests of a drug user. As a result, before admissions are made on the part of a person seeking or presenting evidence of drug treatment during the course of a criminal drug crime prosecution, some important legal issues should be kept in mind:

If a person is a repeat drug offender, and is thinking of admitting to continued drug abuse, possession and/or delivery of drugs to further treatment or to show remorse during the course of a criminal prosecution it is imperative that a criminal drug defense attorney be consulted first. Unfortunately, admission of  past drug crimes and/or activity during the course of drug rehab or within a court of law can sometimes be used not to treat the drug illness but to increase the range of penalties available to a criminal drug crime prosecutor.

For example, a prosecutor with an eye toward punishment can use evidence of prior drug convictions and/or usage as motivation to increase the range of penalties one is facing even after initial drug charges have been filed. This is so due to the proliferation of habitual drug offender laws imposed throughout the nation. Originally intended to incarcerate drug dealers to long term prison sentences, the misapplication of such laws have often been used to allow for prosecutors to seek higher potential criminal penalties against those with no more than multiple drug possession convictions against them.

A drug prosecutor often has broad discretion in what cases to seek habitual offender status that can possibly quadruple a criminal sentence to one of mandatory prison time. While most prosecutors are capable individuals with a proper sense of justice in mind, it is a criminal defense attorney’s role to prepare a criminal drug defendant as though a habitual drug enhancement is a real possibility. As such, one should always work hand in hand with a criminal defense lawyer as to how an individual’s course of drug treatment is undertaken and ultimately presented to a judge in order to insure that a person’s desire at rehabilitation not serve as a trap to incriminate oneself within a criminal court of law.