Cultivation of Marijuana, Paraphernalia

Alright, the run down is this: Florida. A series of extremely bad and unlucky circumstances lead to police searching my house, finding all my paraphernalia and marijuana plants. I was incredibly cooperative and willingly handed over everything. I was arrested, booked, and I'm out on bail. My court date is going to be in August sometime. This is my only run in with the law and first arrest. What should i expect in terms of sentencing? I have a good lawyer, I'm soon to be married, working, going back to school in the fall, and only 19 years old. By the time my court date rolls around I'll also be doing a reasonable amount of volunteer work. I'm including all of the above not really knowing whether or not it's relevant. Can someone give me any idea what I'm looking at here? Thank you.

PS: The charges read Charge 1: "Possession of marijuana over 20 grams. Desription: Cultivation of Marijuana." Charge 2: "Drug Paraphernalia" Each charge has a bond set of $2,000 for a total of $4k. The only other note I have to add is my soon to be wife is also pregnant with our child. Again I don't know if this in any way influences the court's decision. Thanks.

Your lawyer is the best person to ask about your probable sentence. In most circumstances I would say you have a good chance of probation, but some counties and judges take a hard line and I don't know what's happening in your county.

Update: My lawyer went to the arraignment, he pleaded me not guilty, requested trial by jury, and was told by the state of Florida that they wanted to put me away for 180 days, 6 months. All in all thats incredibly reasonable considering Florida law allows for a maximum of 5 years for cultivation. The reason they jumped straight to jail time is because of my two little siblings being present in the same household. Granted, I would never allow them to see marijuana or any of my paraphernalia. DCF interviewed my sisters and all they could tell the agent was that I was "drunk" the night of my arrest. They are absolutely ignorant to anything related. My question is this: Is the state's initial offer a scare tactic? Will there be bargaining of any sort before or at my trial? As I said in my first post, this is all very new to me. Thank you.

Im not a lawyers but from my past troubled life I would say at the worst lots of probation time and a record that will make it harder to progress in life.

This is the kind of thing I was looking for, someone who has been through it or someone who knows realistically what I might be facing. To be honest, I'm just sweating real hard right now. My one night in jail was definitely enough to set me straight and I have no intentions of going back if I can at all avoid it. I appreciate your posts and anyone else who has experienced this kind of thing in Florida or just happens to know how the court system likes to play ball is welcome to post. My only other question for the time being is whether or not it would be in my favor to enter the local drug court program. I meet all the qualifications as a first time drug offender and it would drop the felony on my record as well. I've been told the program is a little overboard for marijuana charges? Can anyone shed light on that? Thank you

Hey I will tell you this its important that you have a paid lawyer not a public defender. Think of it this way most of the private lawyers have relationships with the DA ''district attys''. Mostly like they are going to have private conversations about you the defendent,so dont give your lawyer a hard time and pay them all their money. I have seen lawyers leave guys hanging big time while we were in a holding ceil waiting to be brought out in court. I dont know much about your state but in TN you would have gotten probation with a top of the line lawyer..If you do go too jail you have to be strong minded and not think about home otherwise youll drive yourself crazy..

Yeah, I have a pretty prominent lawyer from my area here in Florida. He was handling my mother's divorce case while she was pursuing that. He's a good guy, but he's also very busy, so both my mother and myself have to keep on him to hear the updates about what has happened in my case. I trust him, but he's also one of those people who needs their space to work which occasionally makes me nervous. He's never given me a reason to distrust him or his efforts in my case. Another good thing to note is that the private investigator that works in his office is the husband of a woman my mother works with. Both of them are good friends of the family and have been very supportive in all of this. Always helping us stay positive.
I wasn't even in court when my lawyer heard the State's offer, nor was he. He wrote the courts to put in my plea and request the trial by jury and heard later on by phone (I assume) that the State's offer was 6 months in jail. When he told me about it, his reaction was that it was absolutely ridiculous and told me he would do everything in his power to keep me out of jail. The PI who is a friend of the family believes it's a scare tactic and also thought it was ridiculous.
Sorry to be so long winded but these forums are really the only thing helping me with all the stress related to this situation. I'm a very family oriented individual and really don't belong in jail. I don't feel as though I'm a criminal and I strongly believe that marijuana should be legalized. However, that is neither here nor there. I've got my immediate family and the family of my own to think about. No amount of fighting on principle is worth losing that. Thank you for your replies Jones, they've been more helpful that you can imagine and anything else you have to add is greatly appreciated as well.

Your most welcome.
I myself have been in a even more horrible place at one point in time dealing with more a complicated case that carried 75 years to life if found gulity by the grand jury all over selling drugs. When the DA got thru with me I didnt have a penny left from going to court and ended up with 6 years probation.
Im now trying to start a non-profit organization to help people not make those split decisions like we did. Some people like yourself think and fill different about Pot, and I agree with you for that matter it should be legal.
In Amsterdam it is legal and they have less crime problems then we do in the US. All politicians are afraid to speak up for it , just like these tight ass lawyers that set on this computer every night and smoke bongs while giving legal advice lol.............