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This is David Black. Today we’re going to talk about drug cases. Drug cases can be divided into two main classifications:
• Drug possession cases or
• Drug selling cases
This discussion is specifically geared towards drug possession cases. You can think of the analysis as follows: There are several different classes under the law. There are narcotic drugs and there is marijuana. Among the narcotics, there’s cocaine, there’s heroine. There are certain prescription-only drugs with opiates in it.
There are also dangerous drugs. Dangerous drugs include methamphetamine. They include some of the benzodiazepines, clonazepam, Alprazolam. Along those are Xanax and Klonopin. Obviously we know what Marijuana is.
When you’re caught with drugs in Arizona, you are most likely going to be charged with a felony. For some of the more serious drugs just listed it would be a class four felony. For marijuana, it would be a class six felony.
You’re probably wondering, if you’re watching this video, what’s going to happen to me, I got caught with a few prescription pills I shouldn’t had or an ounce of marijuana or hopefully not but certainly that is the case for plenty of people in the ditch and a little bit of heroine.
It depends on your history. If you have no criminal history, most likely you’re going to be fine. The kind of attorney in Maricopa County has a good program for diversion. Diversion essentially is, you go to classes, you drug test and after a certain amount of time, the charge, which has been deferred from the prosecution, of which has been deferred gets dismissed.
If you’ve already done that or if you have some other misdemeanor or felonies on your record, you may receive different treatment. We have had a lot of luck here with people, even with multiple prior convictions or a drug that falls outside of mandatory probation, that’s a whole other topic, still securing probation.
I think that in this day and age we find that even prosecutors especially the legislature, understand that addiction is a disease and as long as there’s no victim involved in the crime, they should be treated differently than other felonies of the same technical level, either class four, class six felonies. All these is not to say that you now understand everything or even a significant part about drug cause in Arizona but it’s hopefully to provide a framework for you.
If you have any other questions I highly encourage you to talk to your attorney. If you don’t have a lawyer, obviously you can talk to your public defender, you can call our office and ask questions specific to whatever it was that you were charged with. We wish you the best of luck.
For more information on this topic, please feel free to visit our website or give us a call.
Law Offices of David A. Black
40 N Central Ave #1850
Phoenix, AZ 85004
(480) 280-8028
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