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Will You Need a Drug Possession Attorney?
Drug laws in Texas are aggressively enforced by police agencies, prosecutors, and the courts. If you face a criminal drug possession charge in or near the Houston area, you must arrange a legal consultation – as quickly as possible – with a Houston drug possession lawyer.
While possessing a small quantity of an illegal drug for your personal use may not be the most egregious crime in Texas, a drug crime conviction can still land you behind bars. Scores of Texas statutes cover the possession, sale, manufacture, distribution, and trafficking of illegal drugs.
You may face a criminal drug possession charge if you intentionally and unlawfully possess a controlled substance. You may not possess any illegal drug in Texas, and you may not possess a prescription drug, including marijuana, if a doctor did not prescribe it for you.
Drug possession crimes are not uncommon in the Houston area, but each case is different. The way a possession case is handled depends on the specific drug, the quantity, the offender’s criminal record, if any, and whether the drugs were intended exclusively for personal use.
How Does Texas Categorize Unlawful Drugs?
Generally speaking, convictions for illegally possessing drugs that can be highly addictive and have no medical uses trigger harsher penalties than convictions for possessing less harmful drugs. The Texas Controlled Substance Act establishes seven drug categories based on the addictiveness and medical uses of these drugs:
- Group 1: cocaine, heroin, ketamine, morphine, methamphetamine, and oxycodone
- Group 1A: LSD
- Group 1B: fentanyl
- Group 2: hallucinogens, including mushrooms, mescaline, ecstasy, and PCP
- Group 2A: synthetic cannabinoids, including spice and K2
- Group 3: peyote, anabolic steroids, and prescription depressants and stimulants
- Group 4: drugs that include limited amounts of codeine or morphine
What Are the Penalties if a Texas Court Convicts You of Unlawful Drug Possession?
Unlawful possession may be charged as a felony or as a misdemeanor, depending on the drug and the quantity. In general, if you’re found with a small quantity of a Group 4 drug, the charge is a misdemeanor, while a small amount of a drug in another group may prompt a felony charge.
The most serious drug possession charge is a first-degree felony. Any large quantity of illegal drugs may trigger that charge. Your Houston drug possession attorney will explain what to expect if your case goes to trial, protect your rights, and work to help you avoid a conviction.
Depending on the details of the charge against you, the penalties for a conviction range from a fine of up to $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail (for a Class B misdemeanor conviction) to a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 99 years in prison (for a first-degree felony conviction).
What is “Actual” Possession of Drugs?
If you are charged with the illegal possession of drugs in the Houston area, how will a prosecutor prove your guilt? To convict you of unlawful drug possession, the state must prove you illegally possessed a drug in one of these three ways: constructively, actually, or jointly.
“Actual” possession is when a drug is found on someone’s “person” – in someone’s shoes, pocket, purse, backpack, or underwear, for example, or when a suspect has swallowed the drugs.
What’s called actual possession is usually easy to prove, while constructive or joint possession is usually more difficult to prove. If the search of the defendant’s person was legal, testimony from the police officer who discovered the drug is usually sufficient to convict the defendant.
What Are “Constructive” and “Joint” Possession?
“Constructive” possession is presumed if law enforcement finds an unlawful drug in your home, vehicle, or storage facility. “Joint” possession is the term when more than one individual has constructive possession: for instance, a married or cohabiting couple with drugs in their home.
Actual possession is easier to prove than constructive possession. To convict you of constructive possession, the state must prove you had care, custody, control or management of the drugs where the drugs and knew or should have known the drugs were illegal.
Merely being in the vicinity of illegal drugs does not prove possession. Whether the drugs are in your pocket, in your car or in your home, the State must prove beyond all reasonable doubt that you exercised care, custody, control or management of the drugs and that you knew it was an illegal drug.
How Will a Defense Lawyer Help?
A Houston drug possession lawyer will use every available legal tool to help you avoid a conviction. The defenses that your lawyer may offer in a drug possession case include:
- You were unaware that you were in possession of a controlled substance.
- The substance was not illegal.
- You had a smaller quantity of the substance than the prosecution claims.
- The police uncovered the drugs in an unconstitutional search and seizure.
- Police officers ignored your constitutional rights during a search, arrest, or interrogation.
If the evidence against you is persuasive and your conviction is inevitable, your attorney may seek a plea deal. In a typical plea deal, a defendant enters a guilty plea to a lesser charge, and in return, the defendant receives reduced or alternative sentencing.
Bring Your Drug Possession Case to Attorney Cory Roth
If you face a drug possession charge in the Houston area, now or in the future, immediately contact Houston drug possession attorney Cory Roth. Having advice and representation from an experienced defense lawyer is imperative if you are facing a drug charge in Texas.
If you become a client at the Cory Roth Law Office, award-winning defense attorney Cory Roth will review the charge against you to find any flaws in the state’s case. We know prosecutors and police officers may not always be right, especially in drug possession cases.
A conviction for illegal drug possession can send you to jail or prison. Let attorney Cory Roth fight on your behalf. To learn more about your rights if you’ve been charged with unlawful drug possession, or to retain legal counsel now, call the Cory Roth Law Office at 832-400-4133.