Wrong Place. Wrong Time. Wrong Substance. Understanding Georgia Drug Charges

While public perception of many drugs and illicit substances has changed, laws are slow to catch up. Do you understand what drugs you are not allowed to have? And what are the consequences of being caught with them in your general vicinity? This article explains the basics of Georgia drug crime charges, including:

• Common drug crimes and why most will be considered felonies under Georgia laws.
• Why you can end up being charged with a drug crime despite having no drugs on your person.
• The penalties you are likely to face for different drug crimes and how to prevent them with the help of a criminal defense attorney.

What Are The Most Common Drug Charges You Are Likely To Face In Georgia?

Simple possession of marijuana is probably the most frequent drug charge, especially now that some states have begun legalizing or decriminalizing it.

It is also the only drug crime that is a mere misdemeanor in Georgia; all others will most likely be charged as a felony.

What Determines Whether A Drug Charge In Georgia Is Going To Be Charged As A Felony Or Misdemeanor?

The charge, and hence the penalty, for different drug-related crimes, is dependent on the substance in question and the amount you are found with.

If it is less than an ounce of marijuana, you are looking at a misdemeanor. For pretty much every other drug and any other quantity, you are likely to be facing felony charges unless an attorney can get the prosecution to lower them.

Unfortunately, you can even end up being charged with such a felony despite never even having drugs in your possession.

Can Someone Be Charged With A Drug Crime Even If Drugs Were Not Found On Them?

You might think that law enforcement would need to find drugs in your possession to charge you with possession or any other drug crime. You would expect that only drugs found on your person or in your home could put you in prison. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

For example, law enforcement frequently charges everybody in a vehicle where drugs have been found unless one person confesses to their ownership, no matter who was driving, who the vehicle belongs to, or whose seat they were found under. They do so to try to get people to start pointing fingers and incriminating each other, but that does not always result in a just, fair, or accurate outcome.

As long as the drugs were in some close proximity to you or if there is some sort of articulable circumstance that the officer can use to provide probable cause that the drugs had been on your person, you can be charged with a drug crime in Georgia. And that goes for a much longer list of substances than you might realize.

What Drugs Are Considered Illegal In Georgia?

While the standard list of illegal drugs certainly may be familiar to many Georgians, many do not realize the full list. Despite its legalization in some states, marijuana is still illegal in Georgia.

While perceptions of marijuana are changing across the nation, and some courts, even in Georgia, might not necessarily prosecute misdemeanor marijuana offenses, most of them still do.

Other illicit drugs are even more likely to land you a felony drug crime charge, including:

• Cocaine,
• Methamphetamines,
• Ecstasy,
• MDMA,
• Psilocybin mushrooms,
• And more…

Many Georgians may not realize that, in addition to those illegal drugs, legal prescription drugs not in their original container or prescription drugs that belong to somebody in your possession are considered illegal drugs.

Both can be the cause of criminal felony charges just as easily as “hard drugs,” all of which can carry serious legal penalties if you are convicted.

What Are Potential Penalties For A Georgia Drug Crime Conviction?

While all drug crimes carry serious penalties for convictions, those penalties are not all the same and depend on the substance, amount, and circumstances in which it is found.

A misdemeanor marijuana charge might typically only come with a fine and not much more, but even for such a charge, you could technically get up to a year in jail and up to a thousand-dollar fine.

For more serious charges, penalties will vary depending on the amount of the illegal substance involved. For lower amounts, you will be looking at three to five years of prison time. When you get into trafficking charge amounts, then you may be looking at a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence in Georgia.

While it is sometimes technically possible to get a lower sentence on such charges with mandatory minimums, there has to be some sort of extraordinary circumstance that would justify the court deviating from it.

No matter how serious the charge, a conviction also comes with risks to your future, freedoms, and career. If you are facing a drug charge in Georgia, it is vitally important that you get a criminal defense attorney on your side.

Is It Possible To Win Against Drug Charges? What Defenses Are There?

It is absolutely possible to defend against drug charges, especially with the help of a skilled and experienced defense attorney. However, the way they build your defense will depend a great deal on the circumstances and details of your case.

At the start, a good attorney will always look at the probable cause of the police’s investigation. If you were stopped while driving, your attorney will first look at the officer’s reason(s) for stopping your vehicle.

A lot of vehicles go by everyday, how is it they happened to stop the one that just happened to have drugs in it? Very often there is some sort of underlying reason for the stop that is not necessarily going to hold up in court.

Take, for example, spring breakers pulled over on I-75. A lot of college kids will strap things onto the roof of their vehicle – which in itself is not a crime. However, some law enforcement officers pay close attention to those vehicles and choose to follow them. They will look for any slight deviation from their lane or anything that might provide a reason for the stop, and find a reason to ask for consent to search the vehicle.

These cases are often thrown out because the officers did not have true probable cause for the initial stop. If it turns out their “cause” was just a pretext for stopping someone that they profiled because of the car they were driving, what they looked like, or what their license plate said. As a result, their case might be tossed out entirely.

This is just one example of the many defense strategies available to experienced Georgia criminal defense attorneys, all of which may be able to get the drug charges against you dropped, diminished, or the penalties reduced.

For more information on Facing Drug Related Charges In Georgia, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (770) 474-9335 today.