Dangerous Drugs

Arizona specifically has a definition of what constitutes a dangerous drug, and we’re gonna talk about it.

So some drugs are dangerous and some drugs are not. Marijuana, for example, if you’re using a small amount of marijuana, it’s for recreational use. It’s not a dangerous drug.

If you get charged with possession of that, it’s not gonna be considered a dangerous drug.

It’s not gonna have the elevated penalties associated with dangerous drugs, but what is a dangerous drug? Well, the statute where it comes from is right here.

Okay, this is 12 pages of different statutes of different items that are listed here as dangerous drugs. You can see all of the different kind of technical names there. If you go through it, you’ll see a lot of scientific names.

You’ll have a lot of kind of very sort of specific definitions that are listed out there.

Now, I counted all of them, there’s 332 different drugs listed in the definitions here.

And they’ve got different variants, so really that list is a lot bigger than 332. But really what we’re talking about are just a couple drugs that are really the main ones that we see, and I have them listed here.

So first, the big ones, meth and any amphetamines. So any type of meth or methamphetamine or any of the amphetamines are going to be considered a dangerous drug.

This includes a lot of the Adderalls or the drugs that are commonly used for studying or test prep, those are all gonna be categorized here, as long as you don’t have a prescription for them.

So if you don’t have a prescription, and you’re in possession of any type of an amphetamine, that’s gonna be considered a dangerous drug. This is very applicable to a lot of college students, law school students.

So that’s important that you know that if you’re in possession of that, it’s gonna be classified as a dangerous drug.

We’ll talk about what that means briefly. The other thing is hallucinogens. So we see these with bath salts and in particular shrooms is the recreational drug.

Anything that really is a hallucinogen is gonna be in this statute somewhere. The next that we see are prescription drugs.

I’m sorry, I skipped steroids.

So any steroids, any testosterones, those are all also gonna be considered dangerous drugs as long as you don’t have a prescription for them.

And really, the big ones are the prescription drugs.

So if you do not have a prescription, and you have possession of any one of these, these are the big ones that I pulled out of the statute, you’re in possession of a dangerous drug.

So if a parent or a sibling or a spouse or whomever gave you some of these drugs, you are now in possession of a dangerous drug because you do not have a prescription for them.

The big ones include Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, Soma, and Ambien.

Really, it’s any of the central nervous system depressants. So any one of those drugs that will alleviate anxiety or depress your central nervous system, those are gonna be considered a dangerous drug so long as you do not have a prescription.

If you have a prescription, of course, you’re entitled to be in possession of that drug. But if you don’t, you now are in violation of the law.

So what does it mean? So if it’s a non-dangerous drug, like most marijuana offenses are class 6 felonies. Arizona operates on a scale of felonies from a 2 at the very top, the most serious, down to a 6 which is the least serious.

So say you had a possession of marijuana violation, that’s gonna be a class 6, okay? That’s very low.

Usually you can get those dropped down even further into a misdemeanor.

But if you are charged with a dangerous drug possession, so if you meet any one of these criteria, and you just have possession of it, you are now committing a class 4 felony. So I said it’s a 2 to a 6, class 4 is right in the middle.

So it’s significantly more serious than a non-dangerous drug type of an offense.

If you are selling that drug, if you are selling it to other students, if you are selling it to your friends or your family, you are now committing a class 2 felony, the highest felony that exists.

So, it’s not a minor type of an offense. Some people might just kind of take prescription drugs and pass them around like it’s nothing.

If you’re in violation of these laws, you are charged with a felony regardless.

It’s not the low-level felony either.

It’s a class 4 or a class 6.

In other videos, I’ll talk about the defenses to possession of dangerous drugs.

But for now I wanted to let you know that these are the drugs that qualify.

If you’ve been charged with one of these, please give us a call.

As I said, it’s a serious offense.

We’d be able to help you out. We offer free case evaluations.

Look forward to speaking with you. Thanks for watching.

In a separate video, I explained what drugs are considered to be dangerous drugs.

This statute, ARS 13-3407, says that if you do certain things with those drugs, with those dangerous drugs, you are culpable for criminal liability.

That means you can be charged and convicted for that conduct.

And today we’re gonna run through what those seven different subcategories are, as well as what classification of felony they are.

So remember, in Arizona law we have different classes of felonies.

The most serious felony that we have under Arizona law is a class two.

That’s at the very top. The least serious that we have is a class six, which is at the very bottom.

Then you have three, four, and five, from top to bottom.

You’ll see here that none of these offenses are anything less than a four, so they’re all very serious offenses.

But let’s run through what conduct is prohibited. So the first and by far the most common type of offense that we see with dangerous drugs is just the simple possession or use of the dangerous drug.

So that means it’s for personal use, somebody possesses it, somebody is using it.

That in Arizona is illegal and it is a class-four felony. That is the lowest class that we have in this entire statute.

But it is still a felony, so obviously it’s very serious. Now, if that one person takes that drug and sells it to another person, that’s here under line two.

That makes it a class-two felony. So you possess for sale, so you have some drugs for sale.

You are in possession of those drugs and those drugs are intended to be sold.

That makes it a class-two felony. It’s the highest classification that we have in Arizona. Subsection three here.

If a person has equipment or chemicals that are to be used in the manufacture of any dangerous drug, that is a class-three felony.

If it’s going to be used to make or manufacture methamphetamines, it makes it a class-two felony. So it bumps it from a class-three up to a class-two.

So possessing any equipment or any of the chemicals that would be used to manufacture a dangerous drug, it’s a class three, unless it’s meth.

Then it’s a class two. Also, if somebody manufactures that drug, meaning they don’t just have the chemicals and the equipment but they actually manufacture it, that’s a class-two felony.

If somebody is administering a dangerous drug to somebody else, so they’re actually injecting it or they are providing it to them in some mechanism, that’s also a class-two felony.

So by giving somebody else that drug or injecting them with a drug, it’s the highest classification of felonies that we have in Arizona.

If an individual is obtaining drugs, so if they are obtaining drugs or they’re being administered a drug, meaning they’re having somebody inject them or they’re having somebody give them those drugs, and they’re doing it by fraud or by misrepresenting somebody or by deceiving that person, that’s also a crime.

That’s a class-three felony.

And then finally we have subsection seven here, which is saying that any, basically any type of transport, importing, offering to transport, offering to exchange transportation, or do anything basically moving drugs around for sale, if they’re a dangerous drug, that’s a class-two felony.

So you can see here, there’s seven different types of conduct that are prohibited. By far, like I said at the beginning, we see possession or use is the most common dangerous drug offense that we see.

There are a different range of felonies here. In terms of penalties, the laws are complicated on that. There are a lot of ifs, thens, and there’s a lot of kind of outs for first-time offenders.

There’s a lot of really aggravated terms for somebody who has previously been convicted.

Methamphetamines has extremely severe sentencing. And so we’ll make another video about some of those factors, but just, this is the nuts and bolts of how 13-3407 works under Arizona Revised Statutes.

If you have been charged with a dangerous drug violation and you need some counsel, you would like to speak with our team, please give us a call.

We offer free case evaluations. We’re happy to sit down with you, look at the facts of your case, see where you fall and see what the best way out is for you.

Thanks for watching.

In a different video, I explained a little bit more about how the statute works.

But let’s jump in and give you a quick overview on how this works.

So remember, Arizona, we have different levels of felony classifications.

At the very highest, we have a class two. At the very lowest, we have a class six.

As a recap, the statute has different levels based on different conduct.

So, possession or use of a dangerous drug is a class four.

If you have a dangerous drug for sale, it’s a class two.

If you have the equipment or chemicals to produce a dangerous drug, it’s a class three, unless it’s meth, then it’s a class two.

If you are actually manufacturing the drug, it’s a class two.

If you are administering a dangerous drug to somebody else, also a class two.

If you obtain a dangerous drug through deceit, it’s a class three.

If you are transporting or transporting for sale a dangerous drug, it’s a class two.

So, if you have been convicted of prior felonies you’re gonna wanna look to the sentencing charts and see where you fall based on your classification.

But for most people this video is going to be for people who are just kind of generally charged with a possession or use case, or it’s a first offense dangerous drug charge or conviction.

If you are convicted, this is what the statute says. So, for number one, so somebody who is convicted of just possession or use, the charge can be designated a misdemeanor, and we call this being undesignated.

So it will start off as a felony, but if you can negotiate this out with the government, if the prosecutor’s office is willing to do this, you can designate the felony into a misdemeanor, or you can move forward with your case, and be convicted of it as a felony, but after you complete probation and complete the other terms here have it designated a misdemeanor.

This would be something that would need to be negotiated out with the prosecutor’s office.

It’s called an undesignated felony, meaning it’s not gonna stay designated on your record as a felony forever.

It has the possibility of being designated down.

If you read the statute, 13 3407 you’ll see that line item that gives the authority if you are convicted under paragraph one here.

If you are convicted under paragraphs one, three, or six, you can be probation eligible, meaning as long as you have no prior criminal, felony convictions, no other felony convictions whatsoever, you can be eligible for probation.

So, say for example you look up the felony sentencing charts and you have no prior felony convictions.

You’ll see there, you’ll see a different level of presumptive prison terms.

That doesn’t necessarily apply to you because this section of the law says that you’re probation eligible, as long as it’s one, three, or six.

That’s where it gives you the authority to do that.

If it is a meth charge, so say for example that somebody’s convicted of having a dangerous drug for sale and that’s paragraph either two, three, four, or seven.

So, sale, having the chemicals to make meth, manufacturing meth, or transporting meth, very, extremely harsh sentences for these types of convictions.

It’s a five, 10, 15 rule. So, depending on what category you’re in you’re going to prison for five years.

That’s the presumptive term.

If you have been convicted previously, so say this is a second conviction, it jumps up to 10, 15, 20.

So it’s very, very serious. It’s prison, prison, prison.

They really want to crack down on anything having to do with meth, and so they just send people to prison for it.

So again, two, three, four, and seven, sale, having the chemicals or the equipment, actually manufacturing it, or transporting it, we’re talking about a prison term.

If you’re convicted under any one of these you have to pay a fine of no less than $1,000, or three times the amount of the value of the drug itself, whichever is greater.

So, if you have a value of a street drug and it’s, you multiply that times three and that’s greater than $1,000, that’s what you’re gonna be on the hook for in terms of fines and fees.

You cannot have any drugs. So typically what happens is a person is placed on probation after they’re convicted of something like this.

No drugs whatsoever, except prescription drugs. So you have to be prescribed these drugs under the authority of a physician, and you have to have prescriptions, and you’re gonna be checking in with your probation officer, and it’s very, it’s a very stringent type of process there.

You have to do mandatory testing. So they will be testing you throughout the entirety of the probation, and if you are on probation you have 360 hours minimum of community restitution.

You have to do substance abuse screening. You have to do counseling.

You have to do treatment, and then you have to add up all those 360 hours of community restitution. So it’s a lot.

If you’ve been charged with a dangerous drug violation and you want to avoid a conviction and avoid these penalties, please give our office a call.

You can see here that the statute is not cut and dry.

There’s a lot of one, three, and sixes, and this is only just a small sampling of the statute.

There’s actually a lot more that, a lot other variables as they apply to different paragraphs.

But I just wanted to cover the most basic stuff that’s gonna be applicable to the most number of people.

So if you are facing dangerous drug charges please give our office a call. We offer free case evaluations.

We’ll look through your background.

We’ll make sure that we understand what the next steps are for you and make sure that we can put together a plan to make sure that you’re not convicted of something like this.

So, give our office a call. I look forward to speaking with you.

Thanks for watching.

In another video we talked about what dangerous drugs are, what they’re considered.

Today we’re gonna talk about some defenses if you’ve been charged with possession of dangerous drugs. So as you can see on the whiteboard here, there’s a lot going on.

I tried to cram it all into one board.

Really, I could’ve used many other boards but we only have so much time in this video, but we’re gonna break it down into three main sections.

Firstly we’re gonna talk about possession. What are some defenses to possession?

Next we’re gonna talk about the drug itself. Specifically, what are the issues surrounding identifying the drug?

And then finally, just a brief overview on some other, just general criminal defenses that we use that are not very specific to possession of dangerous drugs that are more specific kind of across the board.

So first, possession, this is a big issue.

Possession is not as clear as it might seem. Somebody might think that well, I was in possession of it, but what does that mean legally?

Remember, in the law it’s very, very specific. We have to get very technical with it.

So how do we do that?

We look to Arizona Revised Statutes 13-105 it’s the definitions part of the law, and it defines possess and possession, and what it says is that you have to knowingly have physical possession or experience what’s called dominion or control over that, and so you can see here, there’s a lot of kinda gray area. There’s a lot of wiggle room.

What actually is dominion? What is control over something? So you could see where you can make some certain arguments.

Same with possession. It’s a voluntary act if the defendant knowingly exercised dominion or control.

So a lot of it goes back to knowingly, did a person knowingly possess something? If they did, then you can make arguments about other things.

You can jump down to the actual identification of the drug, but you really don’t wanna skip over this part too quickly because you can make some very good arguments.

Whether somebody actually exercised dominion or control over a piece of aluminum foil or over something used to smoke drug, whether it’s in somebody’s glove box or in their purse, it’s a big difference.

It’s only one foot away, but in somebody’s purse they have control over that, it’s on their person, whereas in the glove box they really don’t have a whole lot of control over that.

Do they have dominion over it?

Dominion meaning do they have some sort of ability to exercise control over that sphere, and there’s a lot of case law about this, what constitutes dominion, what constitutes control, and so we can make a lot of arguments about that.

Again, you can make a lot of arguments about the knowingly, whether somebody knew or not.

So you wanna make sure that you really spend a lot of time focused on this area if you been charged with this or your attorney wants to spend a lot of time on this, because it’s not as black and white as some people might otherwise believe.

Once we pass through the possession part of it, possession of drug, dangerous drugs, we wanna actually jump down into proper identification of the drug.

So just because it might look like meth or it might look like some other dangerous drug doesn’t mean that it actually is, doesn’t mean that an officer can just come into court and say, “Well, it looked like meth, “it smelled like meth, you know, “she acted like she was on meth,” or he, whatever it is, they can’t just do that, and they don’t just take a dipstick like you put in a pool and just oh, that’s it, it turned red, and now we’re gonna call it a day.

That’s meth and we’re gonna leave it at that.

Really what they have to do is they have to go through a much more rigorous process, and I put here they have to identify the drug in a way that identifies it by what’s called beyond a reasonable doubt.

So you may have heard this in the movies. Beyond a reasonable doubt is the criminal standard that the government has to meet.

It’s the highest standard that we have in American law, and it’s not as easy as it might otherwise sound.

Beyond a reasonable doubt, meaning if there’s any reasonable doubt about what that item was, whether it was a dangerous drug or not or something else, they don’t meet the elements of the offense, and so in the other video that I showed, I went through the statutes, and they’re very scientific statutes, they’re using the scientific names.

A lot of them have multiple variants and all these different things, but what they need to do is identify it to make sure that it matches one of those.

If it doesn’t, it’s not illegal, it’s not a dangerous drug. Those are the definitions of dangerous drugs, and so the questions we ask, what testing methodology are they using?

Are they performing the test to a degree of certainty that they can come into court and testify in front of a jury that meets all the elements beyond a reasonable doubt?

Are they within a level of certainty? And this is some scientific language here, but it is something that we look at.

Is the crime lab who’s doing the testing on the substance proving it beyond a reasonable doubt within a certain degree of certainty?

The next thing we wanna look at, the quantity available.

So in a lot of situations, there will be almost nothing to test, almost nothing for the defense to retest if we wanna do that, so do they have enough quantity of whatever they’re claiming is a dangerous drug, do they have enough quantity to actually take that into the crime lab, test it to a degree of certainty that is acceptable in court?

Sometimes they just don’t. They may presume it is what it is, but when it comes down to testing, do they have a whole, you know, pack of something or do they just have a few molecules or residue left over? So that’s a big issue as well.

The next thing we look at is chain of custody. How was, whatever illegal substance they’re claiming they have, how was it transferred?

How was it impounded, how was it pulled out of a vehicle or out of a home, how was it impounded into evidence, who transported it from the location into the evidence locker, who took it out of the evidence locker, who did the testing, who was involved in the whole process?

It’s all called chain of custody, and if you can break the chain or if you can identify flaws or weaknesses in that chain, that’s a big defense, because it invalidates, or causes doubt, as to the actual identification of the drug.

We’re also looking for issues of contamination. All crime labs have contamination.

They will acknowledge that. They just have to determine how much of it impacted their actual results, and we also wanna know who did the testing.

So this comes down to personnel issues. Who was the person who did the testing, who was the person who helped, who filled out the paperwork, what are their credentials, what do their backgrounds look like?

And we wanna make sure that this person doesn’t have any skeletons in the closet.

If they do, that can cause doubt in the case. That is about identifying the drug. So once you possess it, you have to challenge the identification of it, and it’s not, like I said, it’s not like just dunking a dipstick in and calling it a day.

And then finally we have kinda the standard criminal defense strategies that are applicable across the board whether it’s a DUI, or a domestic case, or whatever. So we’re talking about an illegal traffic stop.

So if this drug was identified and it was in possession during a traffic stop but the traffic stop was illegal, meaning the officer had no ability to actually conduct that traffic stop, it was illegal, that means everything that the officer gained after that should be thrown out.

Same with an illegal search. So if an officer entered a home without a valid warrant or there was no exigent circumstances and they had no ability to lawfully enter the premises, then anything that they gained after that should be thrown out.

It’s an illegal search. Miranda issues, was somebody basically forced to give the police evidence or some statements and they weren’t properly Mirandized, those are issues, whether there was any coercion, whether there was any officer malfeasance, what were the officers who were involved, what were they doing?

Were they doing things improperly or illegally?

We look at Brady issues, Brady meaning if the officer has any personnel problems or any integrity violations, if they’ve ever been dishonest or anything like that, there are many, many, many regular kind of defense strategies that don’t necessarily, are not specific to this particular charge, but it is still something that we wanna make sure we take a look at.

So you can see there’s a number of different defenses to possession of dangerous drugs. It’s just a matter of going through the process.

These cases are felonies, they take a long period of time to process, there’s a lot of interviews that happen, there’s a lot of what’s called supplemental discovery requests that take place, and so if you have been charged with a possession of dangerous drugs, it is a serious charge.

You wanna make sure that all of these are being reviewed.

If you would like to speak with our team about it, we have a very robust process that we go through on each one of these case, we’ll explain exactly how it works and what we think we can do for you.

We offer free case evaluations and look forward to speaking with you soon.