Enough that you really DO need an attorney, especially if your position as a social worker requires you to be licensed.
Enough that you really DO need an attorney, especially if your position as a social worker requires you to be licensed.
I wouldn't worry that much about it. Hire an attorney and maybe you will spend a couple hundred or so for a petty charge. Cops pulled me over in small town, searched my car for hours, found nothing, and claimed that carpet fibers were marijuana. Months later I was told there was a substantial amount of evidence found. Cops and lawyers are never liars and they never do anything ethically wrong.
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The reason marijuana is illegal in the first place is cash flow, so regardless your cash is flowing towards the people In ChArge.
Again, thanks for the advice, people. I'll let you know how this turns out, for the records.
WilloWisp, if the odor of marijuana is grounds for a search in your state, then you're done. Understand that the odor of marijuana is pungent, and unique. To those of us who do not use it or are not around it all the time, it is very easy to detect on people, clothing, in cars, and in homes.
seven707, I hope you're no longer a practicing social worker in whatever state you are in.
Thanks, my thinking is that since there was tobacco paraphernalia in the car that the state would need to have test results for the evidence.
Thank you - I don't smoke marijuana, but am quite familiar with the smell. I can assure you that I would never drive a car that smelled like it. The point is that the officer went fishing and might not have found anything at all - I haven't seen the prosecution's evidence yet. I can say that I will make the prosecutor do their work, as I know from experience (I might be the social worker that you're thinking of) that this department is notoriously sloppy.
Quick update - all drug charges were dismissed. The evidence tested negative for marijuana, the prosecutor tried to argue that it didn't matter, they were by definition paraphernalia despite not containing drugs. The judge threw out the charges.