On behalf of Raymond V. Giudice, P.C. posted in Drug Crimes on Tuesday, February 19, 2013

When a person is arrested for a drug crime, he or she may have no idea what the sentence for the drug crime might be. One man, who is now nearly 60, was arrested for selling cocaine at age 23. He explained that at that time, many people were doing cocaine, so he also did cocaine sometimes.

However, he was never involved in selling cocaine until the day that he was arrested. Needing money to pay his rent, the young man agreed to help sell cocaine in a drug deal. It turned out that the drug deal was a sting and his whole life course was about to change. When this man was arrested in 1977, a mandatory minimum prison sentencing law was fairly new and not widely known about.

Under the new law, this man was sentenced to 15 years in prison without parole, even though he was involved in a nonviolent drug crime. This man explains that he had no idea the sentence would be so long.

This lengthy sentence changed the course of his life. He got out of prison at age 37 and says of his years in prison, "that's a big chunk of my life. And there's a lot of things that I could have done and didn't do."

While this man's sentence would be much shorter if he committed the same crime today, his story demonstrates how much a drug charge can impact a person's life and future. Having a strong attorney on one's side after being charged with a drug crime might make a significant difference in the course of one's life.

Source: GPB News, "Decades on, stiff drug sentence leaves a life 'dismantled'," Brian Mann, Feb. 14, 2013