How Colorado’s Mandatory Minimum Sentences Impact Drug Crime Defense
June 1, 2026
If you are facing drug charges in Colorado, you have several options when putting together your defense. Which strategy to use will depend upon the facts of your specific situation – something a knowledgeable criminal lawyer will be able to help you with.
That being said, knowing the various potential defenses that may be able to help you can be valuable. Because of that, in this post we are going to cover a number of common defenses to drug charges [...]
The biggest drug kingpin under the FBI’s watch is Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, former leader of the Sinaloa cartel. During his time as kingpin, he likely ran the world’s largest drug smuggling operation. Even though he is equally notorious for his ability to escape from prison, the United States is confident that they’ve now got him for good. Guzman currently faces 17 federal criminal counts, and if convicted, will be sentenced to life in prison.
Why no death penalty? When [...]
At the beginning of this year, President Obama started a conversation about the consequences of the War on Drugs by commuting a record-breaking number of low-level drug offenders. Many of these offenders were put away for decades on drug trafficking charges when the powers that be believed that the only answer to our drug epidemic was incredibly harsh penalties.
The country is changing, though. More and more states are decriminalizing or even legalizing marijuana in one form or another. The [...]
Even though marijuana was only legalized here a few years ago, it has already had a huge impact. Lots of new businesses are setting up shop in Colorado to legally cash in. Taxes from marijuana sales have bolstered our state’s coffers. Arrests for marijuana are down significantly. Even drugged driving arrests related to marijuana have decreased slightly.
But there’s potentially an even bigger impact where drug trafficking is concerned. How so? The effect is two-fold, and whether it’s good or [...]
Drug trafficking is illegal no matter where you are. But with the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, it’s easier than ever to ship marijuana somewhere else and reap the financial benefits.
Illegal drug traffickers are using Colorado as a safe haven for growing marijuana in regulated pot farms and warehouses, then discreetly sending it to other places where traffickers can make an excellent profit.
One instance of drug trafficking had an owner of a skydiving company filling his planes with [...]
Only one drug felony level in Colorado carries a true mandatory prison sentence. The other three carry presumptive ranges where a judge still has discretion, meaning the defense strategy in a DF2, DF3, or DF4 case looks completely different from that in a DF1 case. At the Law Office of Jacob Martinez, our Denver drug crimes attorney has spent more than a decade in Denver courts, working to achieve better outcomes for clients facing felony drug charges.
Only One Drug[...]Yes. Dash cam footage from police vehicles and your own camera can be used to challenge DUI charges in Colorado. The question is not whether it is relevant but whether you know how to obtain it, how Colorado courts evaluate it, and what a defense attorney actually does with it. The Law Office of Jacob E. Martinez has defended DUI cases throughout Denver and surrounding Colorado courts for more than 15 years.
What Colorado Police Dash Cams Actually Record at[...]A deferred judgment and sentence allows a first-time offender in Colorado to plead guilty, complete a period of court supervision, and then have the guilty plea withdrawn and the charge dismissed permanently. For someone facing their first criminal charge, this is often the best available outcome.
At the Law Office of Jacob Martinez, our Denver criminal defense team has negotiated deferred judgment agreements in Colorado courts since 2014.
How a Deferred Judgment and Sentence Works in ColoradoThe defendant enters [...]