How's it going every body. Not to good here. me and some friends went camping in hocking hills state park, the first night we were there we decided we wanted to get high, I know it was stupid but it was like 11:30 at night and we didn't think we would have any problems. well we were sitting around the campfire whene out of no where 2 park officers shined there flashlights on us. the guy who had the bowl at the time tried to hide it but it did no good.they searched us and found a bag on me (thats not the problem its only a 150 dollar fine) my problem is they wrote me a second charge for possesion/use of paraphnila(sp) the cops said that they watched all of us hit the pipe before they pounced on us. now i've heard of possesion of paraphnila but not the /use part of it. Every one i talk to gives slightly diffrent advise, some say to plead guilty, another said to plead notguilty, and one said to plead nothing and request a public deffendor. now i've never been charged with anything in my life so I have no idea about what to do. p.s. one person told me I could try entrapment because of the way they snuck up on us. Thank you for any and all of your help.
um, unless they have you on tape i believe its not usable in court.. just stay clean till court cause if they dont have you on tape but they are under oath, and they do say we saw all of you smoking, they can drug test you if you volentear (SP) and if your clean they can not arrest you for using it, and if the pipe wasnt in your possesion at the time of the bust that charge shouldnt be on you it should be on the person holding the paraphaniliea(sp). it sounds dirty but legally that charge shouldnt be on you. hope that helped oh the first charge thats unavoidable(sp?) only casue you did have the bag of weed.
one more thing they found the bag so they know I smoke, so I should be able pee a little dirty and still claim that i didn't hit the pipe, maybe its a long shot, but thats about all i can go for. in despret need of advise.
well as i said the first charge is unavoidable. now as for passing the drug test assumiing they will give you one just so they have "proof" that you did smoke, to pass it i would drink lots of water until id say 5 hours prior to the test only becuase it would proboly be a gov issued test, and they can tell by temp, chemical balance, minerals, salts, and if you drank over the "regular" amount of fluids concumed by an average person. if you do fail you could say u got clam baked( stonr term for i was in the presence of mj bieng smoked in a concealed area and you got second hand smoked high)but dont say that you failed a drug test because you smoked at a prior time, because that will say you still smoked with in a 3 week window wich means any time between 3 weeks ago and if/when they test you, wich is just ass bad as smoking that night.
but if the test does say that you diluted the urine by consuming large amounts of fluids such as water, you can ask for a retake and that could buy you some extra time for the mj to leave your body.
Your options are pretty limited if you don't have the ability to hire your own attorney, unfortunately. A court-appointed attorney is just that--court appointed. If they want a future appointment to a better job within the legal system, they don't DARE actually do anything like vigorously defend their clients. Most of them are just out of law school, and don't want to rock the boat or hurt their future advancement prospects. I would definitely advise you to contact your local legal aid society and start looking for an independent criminal defense attorney who will accept pro bono work. Once you have a lawyer lined up, he/she will help you decide whether to accept a pleabargain or plead not guilty and force the case to a trial, based on the evidence or lack thereof. Any decent attorney should have no problem making a paraphernalia charge go away. Try NORML's Ohio legal defense resources at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?wtm_view=legal&Group_ID=4557 These people SPECIALIZE in marijuana law, and many of them are smokers themselves, who use the legal system against itself to help their fellow heads! Lacking your own lawyer, you need to decide between accepting a public defender or using a pro se defense (representing yourself). Both approaches are likely to result in stiffer penalties than getting an outside counsel. But if you are looking at getting busted ANYWAY, defending yourself and putting the cops on the stand is good for a few laughs at any rate. Going down in a blaze of glory, so to speak... You would be amazed at how clumsy and illiterate most pigs are when you force them to answer direct, blunt questions in front of a jury.
can they prove its your pipe though? What is the dfinition of possession, just hitting it when its someone elses...I don't think so. Anyway, a lawyer could get all of the charges dropped if you can afford one. Just getting the paraphenalia charged is enough in this state. I guess its best to smoke joints in Ohio.
They don't HAVE to, because of the "USE OF" part of the charge. That's sufficient in most states. In fact, if you simply pass a joint to another person, you can be charged with distribution of a controlled substance ( a felony) in many states. Not really, except for the ability to eat it before you get busted. Once you get busted with marijuana, the rolling paper you used to smoke it is considered "paraphernalia", even if it is legally sold for tobacco use. The whole "drug paraphernalia" issue was simply put in place to increase the number of possible charges that can be brought in a drug case, allowing the pigs to look generous when they offer to drop some obviously BS charges in exchange for a guilty plea on others.
Thats some bullshit, I do agree..."use of paraphenalia".......on one hand, if it does stick (the charge) you'll be on probation for 2 years....on the other hand, if you don't want to be drug tested and tell them no probation...the absolute worst penalty they can give you is 30 days jail.....and I don't think they will go that far. Be thankful you were busted in our great state of Ohio....we here have some of the most lenient marijuana laws in the country...right there with Oregon, Vermont, and a couple others....there's certain states..like Indiana, that I wouldn't even want to talk about weed in. BTW...I am STILL trying to dodge a posession and paraphenalia charge....I was caught smoking weed IN MY OWN HOME 3 years ago....I pretty much just told the municipal court to leave me alone (but they still havent forgot, of course) and never showed up...which is not something I reccomend, especially if you want a drivers liscense.
quote: there's certain states..like Indiana, and Nevada. I'm always surprised that the laws are rather lenient here....maybe because so much is grown in the south east of the state. A graph in the newspaper today said the Columbus area smokes the most in the state. Wooo-HOOOOOO thats bullshit about the paraphenalia...I guess my joint idea is no good, best just to carry your bag around till you find a nice privatre house with its own tools.....
i say stick to what i posted, an attourny/lawer one of them people that defend you. a decent one thats not the states. would be also a very wise decision
well i pleaded not guilty to all charges, asked for a public diffender, and i gonna call a private attorney in just a minute. a budy of mine who got busted with me plead guilty and got non reporting probation, lic. suspension, and community service. they told him that if he had plead not guilty and was found to be guilty the penelty would have been doubled...is that a bs scare tactic or what.
Good for you! NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER plead guilty. Ever. And NEVER NEVER NEVER waive time. They will have to try you within 90 days or let you go. Plead not guilty and ask for a jury trial. The d.a. HATES criminal trials, esp. before a jury, esp. concerning pot, because most jurors don't consider amoking pot a reason to put someone in jail. Keep insisting on a jury trial. The d.a. will start offering "deals" i.e. plead no contest to charge A and we'll drop charge B." Tell them no thanks. Because they will keep making you offers, each sweeter that the one before, to avoid a jury trial. Story: I was once charged with cultivation. I confessed (on tape even) because that was the deal I had with the prop. owner--if it got busted I would take the fall, since he was being cool enough to let me grow it on his prop. for free. I pled not guilty and asked for a jury trial, because the way they arrested me (before the confession) was illegal, and I knew I could get it thrown out, because if the arrest is illegal, everything that happens after that doesn't matter. Even if you confess to murder. The d.a. met me at the courtroom door. "The judge is in a real good mood. Plead guilty and you'll be sentenced to 6 months in jail and a $500.00 fine." No thanks I said. The arresting officer didn't show up. He was "on vacation". The trail was rescheduled. The next time, again the d.a. met me. "The judge is in an even beter mood. Plead guilty and you'll be sentenced to 30 days and a $250.00 fine". No thanks I said. The cop didn't show up. He was on vacation again. The trial was re-scheduled. 3rd time the offer was made. Plead guilty, no jail and a $500.00 fine. No thanks I said. The cop didn't show up. He was on vacation. This was the 90th day since my arrest, so the case was over. I'm walking out of the courtroom when the d.a. comes over again. "I've got a deal" she said. "The time for dealing is over sweetheart" I told her. "This was day 90". "We could always re-file" she said. "Look," I said, "3 trial dates, 3 time the cop doesn't show up. I've been here every time. No judge would allow a re-file. The cop will never show up." "Plead no contest to simple possession and you're sentence will be a $75 fine and 6 months summary probation. If you don't get arrested for marijuana during the next 6 months, we'll wipe the conviction AND the arrest off your record." Well, it was worth $75 to me to get the arrest wiped off my record. So I took that deal. $75 to have it liked it never happened, vs. the first deal--6 months in jail and a $500 fine. Thats what happens when you keep insisting on a jury trial. Never take the first 2 deals they offer. They'll get better, trust me.
ok new proboblem, the judge has orderd i pay $150 before they'll give me a public deffendor. i don't have 150. i have been told that the pros. wont even talk to me with out a attrny. i have a free consultation with good attorney, but i don't know if that will be enough.
a public defender is free, I believe. but I could be wrong. If you can afford a good attorney, use your own.
