Like many of these stories surely do, this one begins with the subject (me) being a complete idiot. I got away with smoking in my dorm room at the beginning of the semester by being really careful and blowing everything directly into a big fan pointed out the window. I hadn't smoked in my room for a long time, but at the end of the semester the 2 constant guys in my smoking group left. I decided to smoke in my room again. This idiocy was compounded by the fact that I thought running my big fan would actually be more suspicious and that my desk fan would work. The hot smoke apparently went about 2 inches out the window, then got pushed back in with the cold air at the top of the window. My RA called the cops on night 1, but apparently they completely let me go, which is amazing enough. The next night, though, I was in a really rare mood and decided to smoke again. This time the cops came a'knockin. This is where I'll lay down my tips. 1) Don't smoke in a dorm room (duh) 2) Don't deny shit. They wouldn't be there if they weren't already sure what was going on. Denying anything is just going to aggravate them. 3) Be nice. Imagine some other reality where you're a cop. Of course you're going to react more favorably to some nice kid than lying, mean one. They asked me if I knew why they were there to start things off. This was obviously a way to guage how cooperative I was going to be. I stammered for a bit, then started going with the flow. There was a lady cop doing all the talking and a guy who she said was still being trained. She asked me how much was in the room and I told her about the 8th I had. She mentioned a few times that she had to make a decision between setting an example for the trainee and teaching him a lesson. I knew I was going to get off when she made a joke about how the smoke was so strong in the room that she was going to have to go home and eat right after. I'd only been minorly freaking out until then, when she brought the RA's into the picture. She gave me the impression that they were actually waiting in the hallway to come in and do their own thing as soon as she left. She didn't even take my stuff. She actually set about helping me. She advised that I leave with my stuff shortly after she had gone and get rid of it all. She told me to air out the room and she even turned my big fan around and turned it on for me. After she'd secured my deepest agreement that smoking pot just isn't worth it and ensured me that a return trip would mean bad things for both of us (but really terrible things for me) she left. If I could go back in time I wouldn't do anything differently. I wouldn't bet on getting so lucky again and without the lessons I learned I'd be bound to get caught sometime anyway.
I know. They've been cracking down all over my campus and I'm the only person I know who's been let off.
In light of the "how NOT to get busted" sticky I realized I should ammend my #2 point. You should deny everything unless you're fucked anyway like I was. In my case they could have searched me anyway, but because I was friendly and I didn't deny anything they didn't search at all and took my word for it that I didn't have more than an 8th in the room. So if they're just investigating but they aren't set on nailing you yet, just be friendly and act like you weren't doing anything wrong, but if they've got their minds set on fucking you over just say that you won't answer any questions and get your ass out of there.
