Imagine you were spending time at a friend’s house and the police come banging on the door. Unbeknownst to you, your friend has been engaged in drug dealing. Alternately, imagine that you’re traveling in a friend’s car and a routine traffic stop turns into a drug bust because the police find drugs in the car. Both you and your friend get arrested. Now, even though you’ve never had anything to do with an illegal substance, you’re facing serious criminal charges.
Depending on the facts surrounding your arrest, here are two ways you might be able to defend yourself:
1. The drugs weren’t yours.
Prosecutors need to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the drugs belonged to you. If you were at someone else’s house or in someone else’s car when drugs were discovered, prosecutors might have a difficult time proving the drugs were yours — or that you even knew the drugs where there. As such, your defense might involve highlighting the fact that the prosecutors cannot prove your possession of the drugs.
2. The substance found wasn’t drugs.
In some situations, police have mistaken one substance for another. There have been many cases of otherwise innocent substances, like sugar or flour, being confused for cocaine – or grass being confused for marijuana. In such cases, a chemical analysis will reveal that the items in question weren’t drugs so no conviction can occur.
Naturally, these are not the only possible defenses — they’re just examples of possibilities. The point is that your case is rarely hopeless.
A drug crime conviction could lead to serious penalties – such as years spent behind bars. Before you begin your defense against a drug crime, contact our law firm for a complete evaluation of your legal options.