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Prop 36 Drug Treatment Rarely Ends in a Dismissed Charge
Drug OffensesSep 18

Prop 36 Drug Treatment Rarely Ends in a Dismissed Charge

A CalMatters investigation published Sept. 17, 2026 found that 57 of 18,666 treatment-mandated felony drug cases were dismissed after graduation. Here is how Prop 36 drug treatment works, what the required guilty plea risks, and what to ask your lawyer before you choose it.

Drug OffensesSep 15

Which Hemp THC Products Become Federal Drug Crimes, and When?

A September 2 law pushed most of the federal hemp redefinition to December 11. Delta-8 and THCA flower change on the same day. Only compounds the cannabis plant cannot make, like THC-O, lose hemp status on November 12.

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Drug OffensesSep 9

Did a License Plate Camera Put You in This Case?

A camera "hit" buried in a police report can be the reason a stop happened at all. Here is what license plate reader evidence actually proves, how often the systems are wrong, and the exact records to demand before the data ages out.

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Drug OffensesSep 5

Can Police Keep Your Car After a Drug Arrest?

A seized vehicle runs on two clocks: evidence and forfeiture. Here is what the Eighth Amendment actually protects, why the Supreme Court hears an excessive-fines case on December 1, and the federal deadlines that decide most cases before a judge ever sees them.

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Drug OffensesAug 27

Meg's Law Makes Nitrous Oxide a Felony for Florida Smoke Shops on October 1, and Xylazine Trafficking Starts at 28 Grams

Florida's CS/SB 432 takes effect October 1, 2026. It does not make whippits a felony for consumers, and nitrous oxide was never unregulated: more than 16 grams has been a third-degree felony since 2001. What changed is narrower and harsher, and the same act opens two separate xylazine exposures that most coverage has merged into one.

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Drug OffensesAug 13

South Carolina Just Sent a Man to Prison for 30 Years for Selling the Drug, Not Taking It: The First Conviction Under the Fentanyl-Induced Homicide Act

Bradford Wayne Jovanelly pleaded guilty in Lexington County and drew the 30-year maximum, the first conviction under South Carolina's Fentanyl-Induced Homicide Act. Here is what the state actually has to prove, why the decedent's own drug use is off the table as a defense, and why the widely repeated "didn't know it was fentanyl" exemption is not in the enacted law.

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