My question involves criminal law for the state of: Michigan
This is a follow up to a former post. Basically got caught smoking pot in my apartment in a college town in northern michigan. Cops took my pot but didn't ticket me. Instead gave my info to the BAYANET (bay area narcotics enforcement team). I had a meeting with them, they said if I helped them bust and testify in court against three dealers in town (I had to provide the dealers myself) I would have my charges dropped. I told them the truth: that I didn't even know one dealer in town as I had picked up my shit downstate while I was home on Christmas break (I got caught the day before spring semester started). They didn't believe me and said I had til the end of the week to change my mind blah blah blah. Whatever. My question is (not having ever been in trouble with the law before) what is generally the penalty for a first time offense for possession of an eighth of pot? I cannot afford a lawyer. Should I just plead guilty and hope the judge is lenient? I currently have no job. I am a full time student with debt up to my ears. I cooperated with the cops as much as possible and I really was just smoking pot in my apartment trying to keep to myself (that fact seems like it should be worth more than it will actually turn out to be). It seems to me like the only lesson I will have learned at the end of all this is not to trust cops. Furthermore, I will graduate and leave this shitty middle of no where town in a few months. Will I have to come back every month for probational drug tests? That kind of limits my ability to leave Michigan to find a job. Also during both interactions with the cops they asked me what I was studying and what I planned on doing after graduation. I told them that I was studying to be a teacher. Both cops who asked that question told me that my chances at teaching were pretty much shot with a drug conviction. How true is that? And knowing this, do judges generally make a habit of ruining the lives and wasting the money of students before they even enter the professional world? At this point it seems that I will be convicted of drug charges and forced to pay fines that I can't pay due to the fact that no one will hire me with a drug conviction. I know this is a long rant I am really just trying to get all the info I can as I really feel lost right now. Thanks.

