Penalties for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia in Phoenix | Criminal Defense Attorney Kevin Crowley

Hi everyone, my name's Kevin Crowley, I'm an attorney here with the law offices of Lane, Hupp and Crowley, and we're here to talk about possession of drug paraphernalia. Today the biggest question is what is drug paraphernalia and the answer is really

anything as long as it's used to help grow, manufacture, transport store, inject ingest, inhale or otherwise introduced to the body. Then it can be drug. Paraphernalia talk about a couple of different factors with drug paraphernalia that you right encounter here. Drug paraphernalia is one of the few charges

that is often charged as a misdemeanor, even though, technically it is a class six felony all class six felonies can be charged as misdemeanors

or they can be charged as felonies felonies they're, going to go to the supreme superior court of arizona if they are misdemeanors they're going to go to a municipal or justice court here in Maricopa county, particularly scottsdale you're, going to see drug paraphernalia cases,

that's the only charge and those are often filed in the municipal courts rather than in a felony courts often times this can be a benefit to a defendant because they're not being charged with a felony. I had a client who was stopped in scottsdale they suspected a day. Do you why he was not
found to be impaired, but they did find a bag that it appeared to previously hold marijuana? There was a smell. There was a residue, maybe a little bit of shake, but not a usable amount. So, rather than charging this client with possession of marijuana, because there were wasn't a usable amount, he was charged solely with drug paraphernalia.

That charge went to the municipal court in the city of scottsdale.

Now, if that client had had marijuana on him in his possession, he would have been charged with possession of marijuana too, and in that situation he would have been charged at the superior court for sure. So, in our case, though, the officer I think felt like he was giving our client to break by only citing him with a misdemeanor into the city of scottsdale.

Now possession of marijuana charge the first time offense in the maricopa county superior court. I can pretty much tell you you're going to get a diversion program. Well, scottsdale didn't want to give this client a diversion program and the reason for that was well he's using drugs

and even though we didn't find any drugs, we want him to have a conviction for that. Well, we simply showed them how unfair that was. Given that, had there been just a tiny bit of marijuana left in the bag, he likely would have gotten diversion. So, by using the superior court's conclusions

and methods, we were able to help our client get out of that charge for drug paraphernalia by getting him into a diversion program. So how do we defend against drug paraphernalia charges? Well, there are two situations when drug paraphernalia is is usually charge.

Most often, it is charged in conjunction with another drug offense. So if you have marijuana possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, because the marijuana was found in a baggie possession of our narcotic drug cocaine

and possession of paraphernalia because of the rolled up dollar bill that was used to snort it that dollar bills now paraphernalia

the other way as when it's charged just by itself, there are no drugs, and, as I mentioned

when talking about that case, that most often happens when it's charged as a misdemeanor. If it's connected with other charges, what are we going to be looking at we're going to be looking at constructive versus actual possession for you to be guilty of drug paraphernalia? You have to actually possess the eye

item. Constructive possession is, when an item is say in your glove box and you're driving the car. You know it's there you're constructively possessing it. However, if you are the passenger in that car- and you do not know it's there, then that is not in your possession of drug paraphernalia is not in your possession.

So we're going to look into issues like that. We're also going to look into constitutional issues, especially illegal searches. Fourth, amendment issues. Drugs are most often going to be found after the officer searches in conjunction with a traffic stop or perhaps a stop on
st.

They search the person they find it in the pocket. They search the vehicle they find it in the trunk or whatever it is now. Did the officer have the legal authority to conduct that search? If not, then the result of that search should be suppressed and the charges will go away once more admission, these people admit to having drugs in their vehicle or in their pocket.

Don't have to do that. You have the right to remain silent. Please use it so if you're charged with possession of drug paraphernalia,

Lane, Hupp, & Crowley
111 W Monroe St Ste. 1216, Phoenix, AZ 85003
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