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 fiasco has been, from its inception, an utterly miserable failure, akin to the Prohibition era in this country, which lawmakers also utterly failed to learn from.  Prohibition did nothing but create underground cartels, rampant crime, and destroyed thousands of lives in the process.  Yet, in its term ..read more

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 I’ve heard of.  All of this., of course, is in “response” to any hint whatsoever in the media of police “misconduct” or “excessive force”.  That claim has now been crystallized by the case of George Floyd – who has since this incident has been lionized – even beatified – b ..read more

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 drugs, have been used by human beings for centuries throughout a variety of cultures, and many of these drugs produce positive physical and psychological benefits. Psilocybin has very low toxicity and a very low potential for harm, and arresting and prosecuting people ..read more

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 legal prohibitions against that act or conduct.  It was a long and winding road to get to that public policy shift: Despite numerous bills to legalize cannabis being filed with the Massachusetts state legislature, wary (read: politically w ..read more

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 that can be attributed to snow & ice are numerous – and despite what some people might think, the consequences aren’t limited to a scrape or a sprained limb.  The consequences can be death, or worse. We were reminded of that just a few days ago, when a New Hampshire driver, 22-ye ..read more

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 the defendant was convicted of uploading and possessing child pornography on his computer.  A video of oral arguments before the SJC can be viewed by clicking here, courtesy of Suffolk University Law School. Before going further, let’s define the legal standard that ..read more

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 important because it governs when and under what circumstances the government can search and/or seize items in your possession.  This is true whether those items are located in your home or on your person. As a Massachusetts internet crimes attorney, I can assure readers that the fact ..read more

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 is enforced by the U.S. Department of Education. After an exhaustive review process overseen by US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that spanned more than 2 ½ years and received more than 120,000 public comments, revisions and clarifications were made to the ..read more

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 proceedings will take place in person. Other business is instead being addressed virtually by telephone, videoconference, email or comparable means. These are called “virtual hearings ..read more

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 a Massachusetts lawyer who represents clients who have been charged with, among other things,  motor vehicle offenses, I’m sure you can imagine what my response was. Business shut-downs, stay-at-home orders, quarantines, and working remotely from home have all combined to create a kind of “mass cabin fever”.  That term, of course, originated fro ..read more