Hi, I’m attorney Derek Gray of McMinn, Fradin, Gray & Logan. We are a criminal law firm located here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And this is our FAQ series.
So today’s topic is also going to address drug trafficking charges. Specifically, the question is, how much time will I get if I’m convicted of a drug trafficking charge? Okay. That is a very broad question.
So we always go to the statute itself. We’ve referenced this statute before. In North Carolina, it is North Carolina General Statute 90-95(h). Specifically, as it relates to time, you’re looking at the bottom of the range for drug trafficking conviction—25 months—all the way up to the top of the range for drug trafficking conviction—225 months. So, you’re talking about approximately two years, up to approximately 19 years.
One of the other things we touched on in the last video was that these are minimum mandatory sentences. So, you have to serve that minimum threshold time, and you could possibly serve more. Still, you have to serve that minimum threshold of time, which makes these types of convictions that much more serious, specifically because if you go to the statute, you can see how it delineates for each drug and what the minimum mandatory sentence will be if you crossed a certain threshold of weight.
I’ll focus on the top three drug trafficking types of crimes I see:
- For a marijuana conviction of at least 10 pounds or more, the minimum mandatory amount of time you’re looking at is 25 months.
- If we go to cocaine—if you possess more than 28 grams or 20 grams or more of cocaine, the minimum mandatory time that you’re looking at is 35 months.
- And then, if you look at heroin or opium, and you possess more than four grams or more, you’re looking at a minimum mandatory amount of 70 months.
You can see, it really depends on the type of drug you have. And these are the bottom threshold numbers; the more you have that particular drug. Those numbers go all the way up to 225 months. So, guys, that was a little rundown on the amount of time you could get on a drug trafficking conviction.
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