3 Primary Ways To Fight Against Drug Charges
If you are facing criminal drug charges, you need to hire a defense attorney who focuses on drug possession cases. Fighting a drug possession case is a really specific type of defense and requires an attorney with the right knowledge base. A drug possession case does not mean you are automatically guilty; the right attorney can mount a strong defense for you.
The three most common approaches to drug possession cases are constitution defenses, possession defenses, and chain of evidence doubt.
Defense Strategy #1: Constitutional Defense
The police are not allowed to search your property or person just because they want to or they decided to. They have to have a reason that falls under current laws in order to search you without having a warrant.
Your defense attorney will examine what the reasoning was for searching you. If the police didn't have a valid warrant or a lawful reason to search you, the evidence will get thrown out, and once the evidence is gone, that usually means the charges against you will be gone as well.
Defense Strategy #2: Possession Defense
The second defense that you can try is a possession defense. For the drugs to be in your possession, they have to meet specific criteria. You have to have the drugs under your control and within your dominion. They can't just charge you with drug possession because they found drugs near your person. They have to be able to show that the drugs were actually your drugs. If the drugs were not on your person, but just in the vicinity where you were at, a possession defense may be a good route for you and your attorney to take.
Defense Strategy #3: Chain of Evidence
Finally, if the police find drugs on or near you, and they then seize those drugs, that evidence has to be treated with care. There are very specific steps that the police officers have to follow in order to protect the evidence, and every step has to be documented. If one step wasn't documented or wasn't done correctly, that means that the evidence was not protected, and the case can get thrown out. A good defense attorney will carefully review the chain of evidence to see if any mistakes were made that you can use for your defense.
A drug possession charge is not a slam-dunk conviction. A good drug possession attorney can help you fight against a possession charge by challenging the constitutional reason for the search, examining who was actually in possession of the drugs, and carefully reviewing the chain of evidence.
