Los Angeles Drug Possession Lawyer

Los Angeles Drug Possession Lawyer

LAPD pulled you over for broken taillight. Officer searched your car and found pills in the glove compartment. You were arrested, handcuffed, and taken to jail. They fingerprinted you, took your mugshot, and booked you for drug possession. You posted bail and got released. Your court date is three weeks away. You’re terrified of going to prison, getting a permanent criminal record, and losing your job. If you’re not a U.S. citizen, you’re terrified of deportation. Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group – a second generation law firm with over 50 years of combined experience. Our managing partner, Todd Spodek, has many, many, years of experience defending clients in high-profile cases covered by NY Post, Newsweek, and other national outlets – including Anna Delvey and juror misconduct allegations in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. This article explains what drug possession charges mean in California, the penalties you face, the diversion program that can get your charges dismissed, defenses that can get your case thrown out, and why you need a lawyer immediately.

What It Is

California Health and Safety Code Section 11350 criminalizes possession of controlled substances including cocaine, heroin, opiates, and prescription drugs without a valid prescription. California Health and Safety Code Section 11377 criminalizes possession of methamphetamine for personal use. To convict you of possession, the prosecution must prove three elements: you knowingly possessed the drug, you knew the substance was a controlled drug, and the drug was in a usable amount.

California distinguishes between simple possession and possession for sale. Simple possession means you possessed drugs for your personal use. Possession for sale means you intended to sell or distribute the drugs. Simple possession is a misdemeanor. Possession for sale is a felony. The difference matters enormously. Misdemeanor means county jail and probation. Felony means state prison.

Proposition 47, passed by California voters in 2014, reclassified simple drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor. Before Proposition 47, possession of cocaine or heroin was a felony punishable by 16 months to three years in state prison. After Proposition 47, simple possession is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail.

Possession can be actual or constructive. Actual possession means the drug was on your person – in your pocket, in your hand, in your backpack. Constructive possession means the drug was in a place you controlled and you knew it was there. If police find drugs in your car, the prosecution must prove you knew the drugs were there and you had control over them.

Penalties

A first-time drug possession conviction under Health and Safety Code Section 11350 or 11377 is typically charged as a misdemeanor with a maximum jail sentence of one year in Los Angeles County Jail and a maximum fine of $1,000, though most first-time offenders do not serve jail time and instead receive summary probation which means you do not report to a probation officer but must comply with probation conditions including completing a drug education program, submitting to drug testing, and not committing new offenses, and these standard probation conditions last anywhere from six months to three years depending on the judge and the circumstances of your arrest. California law provides for felony enhancement if you have certain prior convictions, and if you have a prior conviction for murder, rape, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, child molestation, or if you are a registered sex offender, your drug possession charge becomes a felony punishable by 16 months, two years, or three years in state prison, and this enhancement exists to punish serious and violent offenders more harshly while for everyone else simple possession remains a misdemeanor after Proposition 47 passed in 2014.

A drug possession conviction creates a permanent criminal record that appears on background checks conducted by employers, landlords, and professional licensing boards, and many employers refuse to hire people with drug convictions while landlords refuse to rent to people with drug convictions and professional licensing boards suspend or revoke licenses for nurses, teachers, and other licensed professionals convicted of drug crimes, and a misdemeanor conviction stays on your record forever unless you get it expunged which requires completing probation successfully and petitioning the court for expungement. If you are not a United States citizen, a drug possession conviction can result in deportation because federal immigration law classifies drug convictions as aggravated felonies or crimes involving moral turpitude, and both categories make you deportable and inadmissible, so even a misdemeanor drug possession conviction can trigger deportation proceedings, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement targets non-citizens with drug convictions for removal, and a conviction that seems minor to a U.S. citizen can destroy the life of an immigrant who gets deported to a country they barely remember after living in the United States for decades.

A drug conviction can cost you federal benefits because federal law prohibits people with drug convictions from receiving federal student loans, and the ban lasts one year for a first conviction and is permanent for repeat convictions, which means if you are in college when you get convicted you lose financial aid and cannot continue your education unless you pay out of pocket, and drug convictions also make you ineligible for public housing since federal housing authorities deny applications from people with drug convictions and evict tenants who commit drug offenses, so a single drug possession conviction can make you homeless and unable to afford college, and on top of employment consequences, housing consequences, immigration consequences, and education consequences, California imposes firearm restrictions on people convicted of certain drug offenses, and if you are convicted of possessing drugs while armed with a loaded firearm you face a 10-year ban on possessing firearms, and even a simple possession conviction can affect your ability to obtain a concealed carry permit since sheriffs consider drug convictions when evaluating permit applications and routinely deny permits to people with drug histories.

Diversion Program

California Penal Code Section 1000 establishes a pretrial diversion program for non-violent drug offenders. The program allows you to complete drug treatment and education instead of going to trial. If you successfully complete the program, the charges against you are dismissed and your arrest record is sealed. Completing Penal Code 1000 diversion means no criminal conviction and no criminal record.

To qualify for Penal Code 1000 diversion, you must meet eligibility requirements: you cannot have a conviction for any drug offense within five years before the current offense, the offense charged cannot involve violence or threatened violence, you cannot have a felony conviction within five years, and you cannot have been diverted under Penal Code 1000 previously unless your prior diversion was completed more than five years ago.

Before 2018, you had to plead guilty to enter diversion. Since 2018, you can plead not guilty and still enter diversion. After you plead not guilty, the court refers you to a drug treatment program that typically lasts six to twelve months and includes individual counseling, group counseling, drug education classes, and random drug testing. The cost ranges from $500 to $2,000 depending on the program.

If you successfully complete the diversion program, the court dismisses the charges and orders your arrest record sealed. Dismissal means the case is over and you were never convicted. Sealing your arrest record means employers and landlords cannot see the arrest when they run background checks. You can legally answer “no” when job applications ask if you have ever been arrested or convicted of a crime.

If you fail to complete the diversion program, the court terminates your diversion and the criminal case resumes. Common reasons for termination include failing drug tests, missing counseling sessions, and committing new offenses. Los Angeles County has multiple diversion programs available including the CLARE Foundation, Tarzana Treatment Centers, and Behavioral Health Services.

Defenses

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits police from conducting unreasonable searches and seizures. If the police stopped you or searched you without probable cause, your attorney can file a motion to suppress the evidence. Suppressing the evidence means the prosecution cannot use the drugs found during the illegal search to prove you possessed them. Without evidence of the drugs, the prosecution cannot prove the case and the charges get dismissed.

Most drug possession cases arise from vehicle stops. An LAPD officer pulls you over for a traffic violation and searches your car. The officer must have probable cause to search your vehicle. The smell of marijuana can provide probable cause. Seeing drugs or drug paraphernalia in plain view can provide probable cause. Your consent to search provides authority to search. But if the officer searches your car without probable cause, without seeing anything in plain view, and without your consent, the search violates the Fourth Amendment. Your attorney can challenge the legality of the traffic stop itself – the officer must have reasonable suspicion that you violated a traffic law to pull you over.

The prosecution must prove you knowingly possessed the drugs. If the drugs were in a car you borrowed from a friend, you can argue you did not know the drugs were there. If multiple people had access to the car, the prosecution cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you possessed the drugs rather than someone else.

The prosecution must prove you knew the substance was a controlled drug. If you possessed prescription medication and believed you had a valid prescription, you lacked the required knowledge. The prosecution must prove the substance was in a usable amount – trace amounts and residue do not constitute possession. The prosecution must prove the substance was actually a controlled drug through crime lab testing. If the crime lab did not test the substance, or if the testing was faulty, the prosecution cannot prove the substance was cocaine or methamphetamine. Your attorney can challenge the chain of custody of the evidence.

Why You Need Lawyer NOW

You need a criminal defense attorney immediately after a drug possession arrest for three critical reasons: to get you into the diversion program that dismisses your charges, to challenge the legality of the search that found the drugs, and to prevent a conviction that destroys your future.

Many people arrested for drug possession do not know the Penal Code 1000 diversion program exists. Without an attorney, you appear at your arraignment, the judge asks how you plead, and you plead guilty because you think you have no choice. Pleading guilty means you get a criminal conviction. With an attorney, you learn about the diversion program. Your attorney determines whether you qualify. Your attorney negotiates with the Los Angeles County District Attorney to accept you into the program. You complete the program and the charges get dismissed. No conviction. No criminal record.

Most drug possession cases involve searches of vehicles or persons. Many of these searches violate the Fourth Amendment. Police officers routinely search cars without probable cause. Without an attorney, these illegal searches go unchallenged. With an attorney, your lawyer files a motion to suppress the evidence. The judge holds a hearing. Your attorney cross-examines the officer about the circumstances of the stop and search. If the judge finds the search was illegal, the evidence gets suppressed and the case gets dismissed.

A drug possession conviction has lifetime consequences. Employers see the conviction on background checks and refuse to hire you. Landlords see the conviction and refuse to rent to you. If you are not a U.S. citizen, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deports you. If you are in college, you lose federal student loans. If you live in public housing, you get evicted.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney prosecutes drug possession cases aggressively even for first-time offenders. The DA will not offer you diversion unless your attorney asks for it and negotiates for it. The DA will not dismiss the case based on an illegal search unless your attorney files a motion to suppress.

Your arraignment will be scheduled two to four weeks after your arrest at one of the Los Angeles County Superior Court locations including Airport Courthouse at 11701 South La Cienega Boulevard, Van Nuys Courthouse at 14400 Erwin Street Mall, or the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles. If you plead guilty without an attorney, you get convicted and sentenced immediately. If you plead not guilty with an attorney, your attorney begins negotiating with the prosecutor for diversion or filing motions to suppress evidence.

Unlike other law firms who push diversion without fighting the charges, Spodek Law Group challenges the search first and fights for dismissal. We file motions to suppress evidence from illegal searches. We cross-examine police officers about their lack of probable cause. We force the prosecution to prove every element of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. We use diversion as a backup plan if we cannot get the case dismissed. We are available 24/7 for a risk-free consultation.

Don’t make statements to LAPD about where you got the drugs. Don’t plead guilty without exploring diversion. Don’t assume you’re ineligible for diversion without asking an attorney. The difference between a criminal record and dismissed charges is one phone call. Call us now. 212-300-5196.