Attention Floridians.

• And that, of course, is the tragic flaw in the narcotics laws -- that possession of marijuana is a felony. Regardless of whether it is as harmless as some believe, or as evil and vicious as others believe, savage and uncompromising law is bad law, and the good and humane judge will jump at any technicality that will keep him from imposing a penalty so barbaric and so cruel. The self-righteous pillars of church and society demand that "the drug traffic be stamped out" and think that making possession a felony will do the trick. Their ignorance of the roots of the drug traffic is as extensive as their ignorance of the law.

  Let's say a kid in Florida, a college kid eighteen years old, is picked up with a couple of joints on him. He is convicted of possession, which is an automatic felony, and given a suspended sentence. What has he lost? The judge who imposes the sentence knows the kid has lost the right to vote, the right to own a gun, the right to run for public office. He can never become a doctor, dentist, C.P.A., engineer, lawyer architect, realtor, osteopath, physical therapist, private detective, pharmacist, school teacher, barber, funeral director, masseur, or stock broker. He can never get any job where he has to be bonded or licensed. He can't work for the city, county, or federal governments. He can't get into West Point, Annapolis, or the Air Force Academy. He can enlist in the military, but will be denied his choice of service, and probably be assigned to a labor battalion.

  It is too rough. It slams too many doors. It effectively destroys the kid's life. It is too harsh a penalty for a little faddist experimentation. The judge knows it. So he looks for any out, and then nothing at all happens to the kid. Too many times harsh law ends up being, in effect, no law at all. All automatic felony laws are, without exception, bad law, from the Sullivan Act in New York State, to the hit and run in California. They destroy the wisdom and discretion of the Court, and defeat the purposes they are meant to serve.

• John D. McDonald...quoted from "Dress Her in Indigo", 1969

Please check into facts before posting stuff like this as it is in fact debatable.

Florida is pretty tough, though in certain areas Nevada and other states are tougher.

it depends upon the offenders age and weight. Florida is tougher on smaller amounts, Nevada is tougher on those under 21 yr of age and on sale and cultivation.

Florida Penalties

Nevada Penalties

as well as when Nevada says under 1 oz they mean it, so much as a seed on a car floor board can get someone under 21 a felony.

then you have other states like Utah that the sale of ANY amount is a felony.

Alabama, trafficking carries 25-life 1st offense with $50K - $1million fine, 2nd offense mandatory life.

as for Mistralok post,

the 18 yr old kids life being destroyed can be reversed depending on expungment laws, I don't know what Florida's are but a lot of states allow expungment of your record provided you stay out of trouble for X amount fo years and have no more than X amount of convictions on your record.

On the flip side that's where parents come in, to teach the child that drugs lead nowhere and if you choose to get loaded you will probably destroy your hopes and dreams. So really if the 18 yr old is in that possition it's only because the parents failed to teach them or the child chose to ignore the warning basically saying "the laws don't apply to me" or "I won't get caught" which brings us to the FACT that it is his own fault and maybe, just maybe the kid will learn a leason while he is trying to rebuild any hope of making something of his life that he gave up in his decisions to use drugs.