No one says they want to be a drug dealer when they grow up. Well, maybe a few, but not the majority of them. Instead, it often starts with drug use. After 25+ years of being a criminal defense attorney, spotting when someone’s life went off the rails has become a well-honed skill. Sorry to those who think otherwise, but marijuana is not a “gateway drug” that starts people on the path to drug dealing. Marijuana is neither physically addictive, nor is it addictive from a mental sense. While people may truly like the feeling of getting high on marijuana, no matter how much you use, stopping instantly does not leave anyone convulsing on the floor, it just isn’t that kind of drug. Accordingly, it certainly does not lead to using more serious drugs like heroin, methamphetamine or fentanyl. The question of why some of us try the more serious drugs and some of us don’t is what we as a society should be examining. After all, drug abuse is not limited to one part of our society; it exists in the poorest and wealthiest communities. Determining why some members of society use drugs and, more importantly, why some people can get addicted after using just one time really needs to be the focus. If we can stop that initial use or understand addiction better, lives can be improved and many can be saved. I understand that many law abiding people reading this who have never taken any drug and who work hard to follow the rules of society will look at my position with disdain, and they are not wrong. If there were easy answers to a situation like drug abuse, there wouldn’t be a prevalent drug problem in our country. While there isn’t an easy answer, the one aspect of the ‘War on Drugs’ we should be able to agree on is that the current methods we are using don’t work. While the term is catchy, I assume it is not meant to be taken literally. We declared a war on drugs? Really? Who or what are we battling exactly? The addicts? The suppliers who get replaced as soon as one gets arrested? The other countries who are producing the drugs in quantities far beyond what was contemplated by President Reagan when he declared this war and drugs that are far more potent than anything that existed in the 1980s? If so, we are fools. After all, if we look at the problem objectively (rather than just declaring war on it), most of the drug problem appears to be a supply and demand issue. The only reason other countries produce drugs and work to get them into the United States in the quantities they do is that there is a demand for them. Remove the demand for drugs and the supply will end. That needs to be our focus.

So, why name a blog Crime Does Pay? Because it does in the current way in which we handle our drug problem and much of the criminal justice system. No, I’m not espousing a conspiracy theory that the government is growing poppies in Afghanistan or that the CIA is behind the opioid epidemic. However, the only effect of the War on Drugs to date has been building more prisons and jails, larger courthouses, employing more police, prosecutors and public defenders, etc. Even in light of all the money we throw at the problem, the number of users has not decreased at all since the “war” began. If anything, it has increased. In fact, in our “free” society, the United States leads the world in total number of people incarcerated (somewhat more than 2 million at any given point in time). Thus, even though the United States is not a significant producer or trafficker of drugs compared to other countries, it is among the world’s top users of illicit substances. This being the case, the war we waged on the drug problem more than forty years ago is not working.

While it appears we will nonetheless continue down this same path, I am hopeful that, if we take the time as a country to analyze the problem and try different solutions, we may be able to create a positive change. Thus, one of the main purposes of this blog is to help explain the criminal justice system, how it operates and how people find themselves in it from the perspective of a criminal defense lawyer. It is my hope that in sharing my perspective, some misunderstandings can be corrected, and I can break-down the wall of legalese that keeps people from knowing how our system operates. That said, in all fairness, there is a selfish reason I created this blog, too. Recently winning the title of ‘SuperLawyer,’ (yes, that’s a thing – look it up – and, no, you don’t get a cape (I tried)) caused me to update my website. Being a ‘SuperLawyer’ means I get a profile with a reputable company that ranks attorneys. It also allows me to link that profile to my website. Thus, I needed to update my website (you can’t be a SuperLawyer with a junky website). While researching how to do that, I stumbled upon WordPress and the importance of blogs to ‘drive’ people to my website. If you are reading this, you are considered ‘traffic.’ If you got to this blog on your own and not from me advertising it to you, you are ‘organic traffic.’ Apparently organic traffic is important as it helps websites show up on internet searches (if you are considered ‘organic traffic’ by a search engine getting you here, then you can consider yourself important, too). Accordingly, while my reason for creating the blog is to help drive people to my website and, hopefully, to hire me, I do truly want to do my best to explain how our system works to those outside of it so we can work on the problems we have with a clear understanding of what has worked and what has not.

All of that said, I understand that I don’t know what I don’t know, you know? While I can give my opinions and perspective about the criminal justice system, I will never know what it is like to go through it without understanding the law. I will never know what it is to be a person who ends up being charged with a crime or being pulled over due to skin color (yes, it happens, and I will have blog entries of some of the more serious stories). I can’t possibly understand what it is like being innocent but charged with a crime and being stuck in jail or prison (yes, this happens, too and it is not as rare as you think). My point is that my perspective on issues you may read in this blog is not necessarily correct, it is just my opinion. Everyone in the criminal justice system has their own viewpoint of it and none are wrong. I’m just hoping that by writing about various topics, I can help you understand the system a bit more. My goal is to teach and explain so that anyone who finds themselves in the criminal justice system will have a good idea of how it operates. My goal is also to help family members understand what a loved one is going through. Finally, my overarching goal, aside from considering you organic traffic, (“O.T.,” from this point forward) as discussed earlier is to clear up misconceptions and to explain criminal law and procedure in a non-legalese manner. Along the way if you end up at my website (314Law.com) then, perhaps, Crime Does Pay! Talk to you soon, O.T.!

Jeffrey A. Goldfarb – http://www.314Law.Com