Acting fast will provide the best opportunity to protect your rights and build the strongest possible defense.
If you have been arrested or indicted on a drug charge, you need to minimize the damage and protect your rights by hiring a criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible. Georgia takes the enforcement of drug crimes very seriously. Whether a serious felony drug possession or trafficking of methamphetamines, cocaine or heroin or a simple possession of a few ounces of marijuana, it is important to hire an experienced attorney. A person faces serious criminal penalties in the state of Georgia if convicted for possessing, selling, or buying these narcotics. Acting fast will provide the best opportunity to protect your rights and build the strongest possible defense. Drug cases include:
Drug Sales
Drug Possession
Drug Trafficking
Drug Manufacturing & Distribution
Possession of Prescription Drugs
Possession of illegal drugs is a very serious matter. For example, possession of just one gram of marijuana, even if you have never been arrested before this incident, exposes you to a sentence of up to 12 months of time, payment of a fine up to $1,000.00, and the creation of a permanent criminal record.
Possession of other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy and other unlawful substances is a felony and punishable by imprisonment for more than twelve months. A conviction of a felony exposes the defendant to harsher terms of imprisonment, higher fines, asset forfeiture, and severe collateral consequences, such as not being permitted to possess and/or use a firearm; not being eligible to obtain many positions of employment or admission into colleges and post-graduate programs; not being eligible to be licensed as a lawyer, doctor, teacher, accountant, pharmacist, and not being eligible to vote. The impact of one drug conviction can impact your life by remaining on your criminal history forever.
Drug Charges and Your Rights
Drug charges often involve search and seizure issues under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 1, Paragraph XIII of the Georgia Constitution. Every person in our country has the constitutional right to be free from unlawful searches and unlawful seizures of his person, home, business and automobile.
Most drug possession cases begin with a traffic stop of a motorist (often for "speeding", "failure to maintain a lane", “no tail light”) and a subsequent search of the vehicle. A court issued search warrant is not always needed for an officer to search a person's vehicle.
While an officer may initiate a traffic stop if he has reasonable suspicion of crime or traffic offense, he does not automatically have the right to search your vehicle just because he pulled you over. In order for an officer to conduct a warrantless search, he may ask you to consent to the search. An officer may also claim, after pulling you over, that he has enough evidence to provided him with probable cause to believe that drugs were on your person or in your vehicle, thereby giving the officer legal authority to search your car.
Georgia Courts have said that the odor of marijuana - in and of itself - is enough evidence to constitutionally permit an officer to force the driver and the passengers out of the car, frisk the occupants of the car for weapons and drugs, and search the entire vehicle for drugs: all without a court issued search warrant.
In order to protect your constitutional rights and make sure the police have not violated your rights it is important to contact an attorney. If a police officer found drugs on your person, in your car, in your home, and has violated your constitutional rights, you may be able to get your drug possession charges reduced or entirely dismissed.