Drug Charges · answered on camera

Drug Conviction Without Prison? Expert Attorney Explains Options

Name: Drug Conviction Without Prison? Expert Attorney Explains Options
Uploaded: 2025-06-28T15:39:00Z
Channel: Stuart Kirchick
Description: Can you avoid prison on a drug conviction, even with priors? Often yes, explains San Jose attorney Stuart Kirchick. California once imposed a 90-day mandatory jail minimum for being under the influence (Health & Safety Code 11550), later allowed rehab instead, then repealed the minimum. Decriminalization, he says, has steered more people into treatment and reduced the jail population.

Quick answer

Can you avoid prison on a drug conviction, even with priors? Often yes, explains San Jose attorney Stuart Kirchick. California once imposed a 90-day mandatory jail minimum for being under the influence (Health & Safety Code 11550), later allowed rehab instead, then repealed the minimum. Decriminalization, he says, has steered more people into treatment and reduced the jail population.

Excerpt summaries from the video and transcripts · how we make them

Law updateNOTE — current law: California's treatment of repeat drug possession changed with Proposition 36 (passed November 2024, effective December 2024). It created a 'treatment-mandated felony' (Health & Safety Code §11395): possessing hard drugs (fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine) with two or more prior qualifying drug convictions can now be charged as a felony. Completing court-ordered treatment still leads to dismissal, but declining or failing it can mean up to three years in prison—so priors carry more weight than when this interview was recorded.

Answered by Stuart Kirchick · San Jose, CA

Highlights

0:48

— how a mandatory jail term gave way to a rehab alternative

1:28

— how decriminalization thinned jail and prison populations

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you avoid prison on a drug conviction with priors?

Often yes—California once imposed a 90-day mandatory jail minimum for being under the influence, then allowed rehab instead, and later repealed the minimum.

How did decriminalization change the jails?

It steered more people into treatment and thinned the jail and prison populations, reducing incarceration for these offenses.

→ Full interview on Attorneys.Media

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Contact Stuart Kirchick

Answered by

Stuart Kirchick
The Law Offices of Stuart D. Kirchick

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