I spend half of my time as a lawyer defending people accused of drug crimes. In almost all cases, the offense related to these “crimes,” is that they are classified as crimes, to begin with. June 2021 marked the United States’ 50 year history of its “War On Drugs.” This…
I’ve watched with increasing dismay – even disgust – at the calls of extremists in the Democratic Party (specifically, the leftist wing that controls that party) to “defund” police departments across this country. This ridiculous idea has to be among the pantheon of the most unthinkable of public policy ideas…
In Part One of my most recent post on this subject, I outlined a recent effort in the Massachusetts Legislature to decriminalize and eventually legalize for sale psychedelic drugs. While a good number of people might be shocked at this idea, it’s not so far-fetched. Psychedelic drugs, also called entheogenic…
As pretty much anyone in Massachusetts knows, possession and use of marijuana (cannabis) has been legal here for a few years now. It made its way to full legalization following initial decriminalization. Decriminalizing is the legislative process of removing criminal sanctions against an act or behavior, while legalizing something removes all…
Living in Massachusetts can be, during winter, a challenge to say the least. It’s cold enough here to snow from about early November to early April. For skiers and winter sports enthusiasts, it’s Heaven. For me and a lot of people here, it’s more like Hell (freezing over). The injuries…
In Part One of my previous post on this subject, I discussed the Supreme Judicial Court’s recent ruling upholding the validity of a search warrant issued for the defendant’s computer, when the warrant was issued seven months previous to the computer’s seizure. That case is Commonwealth vs. Guastucci, SJC-12829, and…
Search warrants have traditionally been the focal point of many an appellate court’s decisions in the area of criminal law. This area of law is governed by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and here in Massachusetts by Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declarations of Rights, and is extremely…
I’ve written before about how the Obama-era regulations that defined and governed sex offenses under the federal law known as Title IX, were far too weighted against the accused. “Title IX” prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender at colleges, universities and any educational institutions receiving federal funds. The law…
Here’s an update on how the Massachusetts District Courts are adapting to COVID-19: Q. Are all of the District Courts open during the COVID-19 crisis? A: Yes, all District Courts are open to conduct certain designated business and to conduct hearings in certain designated matters. As of July 13, some…
A friend of mine and I were recently talking about our hope that the economy can be re-opened again – and soon. One of the things he said to me was, “Yeah – I haven’t been able to hit the open road and hit the gas for a while.” As…