Statistics from the United States Sentencing Commission show that in fiscal year 2013 over 30 percent of all reported federal crimes were drug trafficking offenses and that roughly 96 percent of those facing these charges were ultimately sent to federal prison.
Closer to home, these USSC statistics show that there were over 1,400 federal drug trafficking cases in the Southern District of California in fiscal year 2013, good for number two on the list.
What numbers like these serve to illustrate is that while many states, particularly California, have taken steps to change their approach to drug crime — think legalization, sentence reductions, treatment, reclassification — the federal government simply hasn’t. Indeed, it’s commitment to waging the war on drugs is as strong as it was 40 years ago.
To learn more about how the federal government’s approach to drug crimes is anything but progressive, we urge you to read our recently published white paper entitled “As Much as Times Change, Federal Drug Charges Stay the Same.”
Here, you’ll learn about the jurisdiction of federal courts, sentencing for federal drug crimes and why you must never underestimate the severity of these charges.