Crucial Guide To New California Drug Sentencing Laws

Under new California drug sentencing laws, many personal-use drug possession cases are now charged as misdemeanors instead of felonies. This shift has reduced potential prison exposure for drugs like meth and cocaine when the amount is for personal use. This article explains the key changes, exceptions, and what they mean for San Bernardino County cases.

Kirk Tarman– Criminal Defense Attorney – San Bernardino County, CA

“Drugs, have gone down dramatically. In regard to the sentencing. Used to be like crystal meth, if you had personal use, you would be looking at criminal convictions from a misdemeanor to a felony. Cocaine, up to couple of years ago, even if you had personal use levels of cocaine, just a little bit of it, you was always going to be a felon, no matter what.

And now recently there’s been a plethora, just a bunch of really good, what are called diversion laws, which is that you don’t even get a conviction, you get a dismissal. If you do something appropriate, like a drug rehabilitation, or if you do some community service, the DA and/or, in this case, the Judges, they’ll dismiss those cases. Almost all of the drug cases are going in that diversionary avenue.”