Potential Penalties for Drug Dealing

Interviewer: What’s the range of penalties for drug dealing?

Different Drugs Are Classified into Different Schedules

Mike Kramer: The penalties get rather complicated depending on the classification of the drugs. Each schedule carries a different penalty. There are different penalties for possession or sale.

The Current Drug Laws Are Complicated

Our drug laws are antiquated and overly complicated and without knowing the specifics of every single case and actually looking up exactly where it falls within the schedules and within the quantities involved, you really can’t talk about specific jail time.

Everyone knows the Rockefeller drug laws were terribly severe and for just a small quantities of drugs, people could be sentenced to a huge amount of jail time. Those drug laws, I’m sure we’ve all read, have been rewritten and the penalties now are more in line with the crime.

The Drugs Laws Have Changed Somewhat over the Years but Are Still Harsh in Attorney Kramer’s Opinion

But in my opinion, the drug laws are still totally antiquated. Previously, marijuana was equal to cocaine or heroin and now there are separate categories for marijuana. But severe penalties still exist for relatively small amounts of drugs.

The basic objective in drug cases is to make sure a person is not convicted of a felony.