A federal judge has declared Florida’s drug statute unconstitutional as it lacks the element of intent. If upheld on appeal, the decision could spring hundreds, possibly thousands, of people accused of drug crimes.
U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven of Orlando has declared Florida’s drug statute unconstitutional as it lacks the element of intent. In an order issued Wednesday, she noted that Florida is the only state in the nation to eliminate intent as an element of its Florida Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. Legislators excised it in 2002.
The example Scriven cited was a student who hides his cocaine in a friend’s backpack without telling him. The friend, having no idea it is there, is guilty under the law even if he had no intent to possess it or didn’t know it was there.
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