What are the commonly used defences against a drug crime case?

Substance abuse and the use of narcotics is a serious problem in many jurisdictions. In the United States, there are stringent regulations against unauthorised possession and consumption of illegal drugs. Possession of substances like marijuana, cocaine, LSD, and even medicinal drugs without prescription and authorisation can land you in trouble. All sorts of drug crimes – possession, distribution, consumption and manufacturing without legal authority is punishable by law and could lead to serious legal punishments and consequences.

If you are facing any legal charges for a drug-related crime or are a person of interest in such a matter, you don’t have any time to think. And hiring a drug crime lawyer should be your primary focus. Drug crime charges can taint your profile and are something difficult to defend against. And, you wouldn’t want to put yourself at risk without proper experience. Defending against drug crimes can be challenging and one has to be careful while choosing the defence strategy. As things are quite volatile in such cases and any stupid move can backfire severely.

1. What evidence do they have?

In a drug crimes case, the state is required to produce admissible evidence to prove the crime. On the other hand, the defence has to present arguments to oppose. Therefore, while building your case, it is important to understand the evidence being against you. If they have enough to prove that the drugs were present in your vehicle or on you in person, you cannot refute against them as false charges.

2. Using your Fourth Amendment Rights

This is among the popular choices for defence against narcotic drugs charges. The defendant can argue against the unlawful search conducted by the authorities without any probable cause. In such cases, the state might have to justify the intent of the search and seize or if the possession charges were coincidental to a traffic stop. If the search activity violates the defendant’s 4^th Amendment rights, the drug evidence of the event could be inadmissible.

3. Drugs were planted or you are an entrapment victim

Police officials sometimes work along with informants to catch suspects and drug criminals. In this case, informants or officers use state-issued narcotics to plant on a suspect as a sting operation to catch the culprits. Though it is fairly challenging to sell this story to the jury without having actionable evidence to support your claim.

4. Missing evidence and plausible deniability

It isn’t uncommon for evidence to get misplaced in the chain of custody. So don’t always assume that the supporting evidence is available at trial until it is presented in court. Also, you can use plausible deniability (unaware of its presence/possession) in your defence. But, this would only work if it matches the serious of events and the case presented to the jury.

5. Medical prescription

Possession or trade of restricted substances like marijuana, Vicodin, etc. without a valid medical prescription is punishable. So, if you can produce a medical prescription to justify the possession of the drugs, you could get the charges dismissed.

Fighting drug possession/ abuse criminal charges is exhausting and requires strategic planning to protect one from being charged. If you are looking for an experienced Rochester drug crime lawyer to protect you, book your appointment with our team at King Law and we will give you the best representation to get you a favourable outcome.