- 07
- May
2012
A man intent on taking his life instead received a 15 years prison sentence. The man brought 31 painkillers and a bottle of Natural Life to Orlando's Cherry Tree Park. An officer caught him drinking the beer and then arrested him for illegal possession of pharmaceutical drugs.
The number of pills in his possession led to a charge for prescription-drug-trafficking. Mandatory-minimum sentences were included in the law to discourage trafficking in prescription drugs. The mandatory-minimum sentence is based on the weight of the pharmaceutical drugs.
In this case, the hydrocodone pills weighed in at just over 22 grams enough to trigger a mandatory-minimum sentence of 15 years. However, hydrocodone made up a small portion of the pills and was only 0.23 grams.








