Drug Crime Defense: What Penalties Are You Facing?

If you’re charged with an offense which will require a drug crime defense, it may take some time for the prosecution to decide exactly to what extent they will push the penalties. During this time, it can be frustrating for any defendant, unsure of how much time he could be looking at, should his defense prove unsuccessful. Your first order of business should be to find a good criminal attorney who can help organize and mount your strategy and provide you with adequate representation. To alleviate your frustration and sense of confusion, however, here is a look at how you can figure out what penalties you might be facing.

One thing that may play a major role in determining what kind of penalties you’ll be facing is your prior criminal record. Do you have one? The prosecution team and the judge will be looking carefully at that record to determine what kind of person you are. Someone with no past history of arrests or trouble with the law stands a fairly good chance at escaping the process with a warning or some light penalties such as probation or community service. Possibly some rehab or a drug awareness class. If you do have priors, however, they could work against you in a big way.

As your attorney begins to mount your drug crime defense, he’ll be studying the charges against you very carefully. He’ll be looking for any charges that could, in no way, be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and may look to have them dismissed before a trial even begins. He will also be studying those charges to determine the severity of the penalties you may be facing. Depending on where you live, for example, the charges for marijuana possession may not be nearly as severe as those for cocaine possession. And few courts will treat possession of any kind with the kind of seriousness reserved for intent to sell. Of course, depending on how much you had on you, a prosecutor may attempt to charge you with intent to sell even if you had no such intentions.

Don’t hesitate to ask your attorney about anything that you don’t understand. If you’ve been smart, you will have hired a lawyer with a rich history of presenting drug crime defense cases and, hopefully, with a successful record. No defense lawyer is going to be able to get the majority of their clients acquitted, but by obtaining good representation, you can often escape the worst of the penalties the prosecution has in store for you. Keep the communication lines open with your lawyer and make sure you don’t leave anything out that could help or hinder him from presenting the best case possible.