Connecticut drunk driving cases should not increase as a result of the recent legislation. If anything, it could reduce the chance for DUI to occur, because Connecticut residents will no longer have to travel to a neighboring state, such as New York or Massachusetts, in order to buy beer, wine or other spirits on a Sunday.

The bill to allow Sunday sales in Connecticut passed a couple of weeks ago. Gov. Daniel Malloy supported it. The Sunday ban, he said, "cost Connecticut businesses millions of dollars as consumers have flocked over our borders in search of more convenient hours and lower prices."

Ending the Sunday ban does not only make good economic sense. It also puts the decision about whether to buy or drink alcohol on Sunday where it belongs: with individual citizens.

Overall, however, society has become sophisticated enough to recognize that prohibition doesn't work. It didn't work as national policy toward alcohol in the 1920s and early 1930s. And yet nearly 80 years after the end of Prohibition, states have remained various vestiges of it.

Connecticut has now removed one of those old vestiges.

Source: "Connecticut To Become 49^th State To Sell Alcohol On Sunday," Mary Ellen Godin, Reuters / Huffington Post, 5-1-12

Connecticut domestic violence cases are therefore part of a much bigger picture. But Connecticut has responded, however, with some very specific state legislation to address various aspects of the problem.

This week, for example, the Connecticut legislature passed a bill intended to establish clearer standards on how law enforcement agencies deal with family violence.

The new law seeks to improve the administration of restraining orders. Under the new law, orders will extend for a year, rather than six months. Another provision aims to improve communication within the justice system, particularly between police and probation officers, so that court papers are served on domestic assault suspects more smoothly.

But the new law does much more than tweak the requirements for restraining orders. It also lays out some clear steps that police departments must take to respond in a fair, consistent way to allegations of domestic violence.

Each police department must also designate a point person on domestic violence issues. And all police officers must receive more uniform training on it.

Overall, the new law aims to make the various aspects of the justice system more cohesive in cases involving domestic abuse issues.

Source: "New Law Targets Domestic Violence," Hartford Courant, 5-9-12

Upon the law's passage, the answers will be immediately relevant for Bridgeport marijuana possession charges, as well as other marijuana offenses.

Last week, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted to legalize marijuana for medical use. The state Senate has not yet acted on the bill.

The place to start in understanding the coverage of the proposed law is to ask which medical conditions would it cover and who would decide which conditions qualify.

The bill requires that, in order for a patient to obtain medical marijuana, a doctor would have to certify that the patient has a medical condition or disease that is recognized by appropriate authorities. Those authorities, under the bill, would be the Department of Consumer Protection and a newly created Board of Physicians.

The Board of Physicians would have eight members and include doctors with specialties in pain management and several other areas. The goal would be to develop an inclusive, dynamic set of criteria on conditions that qualify for medical marijuana.

To give this evolution an opportunity to happen, the proposed law allows for a process to petition the board to include additional medical conditions.

If the Senate approves the bill and it becomes law, we will examine other aspects of Connecticut medical marijuana in upcoming posts.

Source: "Medical Marijuana: How Would The Law Work?," Nancy Schoeffler, Hartford Courant, 5-1-12

Bridgeport drug charges defense attorneys know, for example, that heroin is now more widely available than ever before. The price has dropped, so that heroin is now often as easy to obtain as marijuana.

Heroin is also now available in newer forms, which allow it to be snorted, smoked or swallowed. In the past, injection was the primary means of taking it.

So that's point one: there much more heroin around than there used to be. And it remains highly addictive.

It shouldn't be all that surprising, then, that some heroin inadvertently ended up being brought to school.

What appears to have happened, according to school superintendent Paul Vallas, is that the five-year-old boy took his stepfather's jacket to school without knowing there were drugs in the pockets.

"Children bring to school what they find at home," Vallas said.

Press accounts suggested that the jacket contained up to 50 packets of heroin. The drugs reportedly had a street value of about $500.

In short, the context of the kindergarten case shows the changing context for heroin in Connecticut and across the country. There are new methods of administering the drug, and its popularity is more widespread than ever before.

The availability of treatment resources, however, still lags behind the need.

Source: "Conn. boy, 5, takes 50 packets of heroin to school," Kerri Compton, KLTV, 4-17-12

Here in Connecticut, investigation of suspected prescription drug abuse is also a key focus of law enforcement. Drug possession or even trafficking charges can be the result.

The subject is a complex one in many ways. The players include people addicted to painkillers, doctors and pharmacists who may allow fraudulent prescriptions, and those who sell and resell the drugs - sometimes on the black market.

The U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, David B. Fein, believes there is a Florida-to-Connecticut distribution pipeline for illicit drugs. The wide availability of such drugs on the Internet is also a problem.

Federal authorities are responding with numerous arrests. In the last 16 months, the FBI and other agencies have taken more than 50 people into custody for selling prescription drugs.

One of these arrests was of Justin Kolves, a former state trooper in Florida. He confessed to helping to transport large quantities of the powerful prescription painkiller ocycodone from Florida to Connecticut.

Oxycodone is still the drug most commonly involved in suspected prescription drug crime. But methadone and other narcotic painkillers are popular as well.

Source: "Feds: Florida-To-Connecticut Prescription Drug Pipeline Fuel Spike in Abuse," Josh Kovner, Hartford Courant, 4-6-12

The bill passed the judiciary committee in the General Assembly this week.

There are several proposed changes included in the bill.

One change would be the maximum length of a restraining order. Under current law, the longest amount of time that a restraining order can run is six months. The bill under consideration would permit judges to issue orders that last up to a year.

This extension is only one of the recommendations made by the state's Task Force on Domestic Violence.

Another recommendation is to require local law enforcement agencies to create and put in place clear guidelines on when someone should be arrested on domestic violence charges. The idea is to have uniform state guidelines, with operational flexibility for police departments in implementing them.

This flexibility is important. Experience has shown, for example, that mandatory arrest policies can be very problematic. The reality that domestic disputes can become highly charged emotionally does not mean that police should arrest first and ask questions later.

Most domestic cases, however, do not involve homicide. In fact, as many as one-third of all criminal cases are connected in some way to domestic violence. This adds up to approximately 37,000 court cases each year.

Source: "Domestic abuse task force urges longer restraining orders," Ken Dixon, CTPost, 3-3-12

Marijuana possession charges have been a staple for prosecutors for years. But now more and more states are legalizing medical marijuana. In Chicago, authorities are considering responding to low-level marijuana possession by issuing tickets rather than threatening jail sentences.

There is even talk of outright legalization of marijuana in some states. Polls show the public growing more receptive to this idea.

In Connecticut, the legislature is considering a proposal to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. Connecticut would join 16 other states that have already passed some type of medical marijuana law.

In 1996, California was the first state to take this step. Fifteen years earlier, Connecticut had seemed poised to become a medical marijuana pioneer, after passing a law allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for medical use. But the law never really took hold in practice, as concerns about ongoing prohibitions against marijuana in federal law kept doctors from actually writing prescriptions for it.

This year may be different. In addition to Connecticut, three other states are considering legalizing medical marijuana.

To be sure, marijuana remains a controlled substance under federal law. But at the state level, the tide seems to be turning toward allowing pot for medical purposes.

Source: "Medical Marijuana: If Approved, Connecticut Would Join 16 Other States," William Wier, Hartford Courant, 3-8-12

Connecticut drunk driving defense lawyers are closely monitoring the expanded use of these ignition interlocks. Prior to this year, Connecticut law only required interlocks to be used after a second drunk driving conviction. Beginning this year, however, even a first-time conviction triggers a requirement to install them on any vehicles the person intends to drive.

The lock has to stay on for a full year, following the completion of the license suspension period of 45 days.

After a second conviction, the interlock period is even longer: three years.

Connecticut is not alone among the states in requiring ignition interlocks even for first-time convictions. At least 14 other states do so as well.

As Connecticut ramps up to implement the expanded breath-test requirement, it is also important to note what the BAC threshold is. Although the legal BAC for driving is 0.08, the threshold for ignition interlocks is well below that at 0.025.

Other implementation issues will be highlighted in upcoming posts on this blog.

Source: "State Increases Use of Auto Device For Convicted Drunken Drivers," Jesse Leavenworth, Hartford Courant, 3-8-12