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Is it technically illegal to "be" high?

Where I live cops have no right to search your person on foot without probable cause, and having red eyes or acting "stoned" is not probable cause. You can decline to let them search you, just DO NOT decline to show them ID, or then they can search you.

And yeah, don't drive stoned, you have absolutely no rights when you're in a vehicle. They can search the fuck out of you for no reason if they want...
 
in melbourne, people get off for being high all the time. i know several people who have even had their drugs confiscated by the cops and pretended not to know what they were and get away with it. ymmv of course, however most cops here aren't complete tools and have a lot of better things to do.

my father is a paramedic and he thought it wasnt illegal to be under the influence...however he also thought possession of drugs wasn't illegal so i wouldnt trust him. pretty funny though, when i explained to him that of course possession was illegal, he was just like "so you're telling me all those junkies i've saved could have gotten arrested?? fuck off". but yeah. my dad is sorta cool.

another thing that happens here is that you can use "being under the influence of drugs, including alcohol" to get out of carrying a ticket on the train/tram/bus if it "impedes your ability to understand that you require a ticket due to your lack of awareness of your surroundings". pretty weird.
 
Lamplighter said:
another thing that happens here is that you can use "being under the influence of drugs, including alcohol" to get out of carrying a ticket on the train/tram/bus if it "impedes your ability to understand that you require a ticket due to your lack of awareness of your surroundings".
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that is ridiculous.

i notice you quoted the last bit - can you point to the source from which you're quoting it (or otherwise provide some substantiation of this claim)?

thanks.

alasdair
 
In the UK unless you're causing trouble I just can't see you getting into trouble (if it does happen it must be incredibly rare). I've been fucked up and the police have even driven me home or to the hospital.
 
^ yeah...you're stoned...so what?.. you don't have anything illegal on you so there is no case to make. Why drag you downtown and throw you in a piss tank full of drunks?...I've been taken home too...unfortunately it was to my father who was just too happy to "take it from here"...
 
hey alasdair, i understand that you want substantiation from that quote.

however i AM paraphrasing, i admit that, i am just going from memory from when i got fined for not carrying my ticket (i left it at home! still got fined 200 bucks though :( ) and read the guidelines printed on the back of my infringement notice regarding "if you want to contest your fine" or similar

i assure you it did say something to this effect, i also thought it was ridiculous. i am also not game enough to try it... i will endeavour to find an online version of the infringement notice.
 
It gives them reason to search you if they can tell you're high or if they can smell it, but they can't get you for anything. It's also hard to tell if your high when you're and expierenced smoker. As long as you have no drugs on you you'll be fine.

Stay safe, be positive :)
 
Depends on where you live. In the US, UK, Canada it is not illegal to be under the influence. In some countries, the mere presence of a drug in your system is enough to get arrested. I've never understood why people use illegal drugs in places like Thailand or in a city like Dubai with extremely harsh drug laws. No thanks.

Who was the DnB DJ that got in trouble trying to smuggle porn and a joint into Dubai? Groverider right?
 
papasomni said:
^ yeah...you're stoned...so what?.. you don't have anything illegal on you so there is no case to make. Why drag you downtown and throw you in a piss tank full of drunks?...I've been taken home too...unfortunately it was to my father who was just too happy to "take it from here"...
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I've not really been stoned very much in public though. I was more thinking my recollections of being extremely wasted on GBL. I doubt they would really even know if I was stoned in the first place to be honest since it doesn't make me stagger around like alcohol does.

My point was really that the UK is not draconian like places in the US and other countries.
 
^ yeah that's true. I only really meant 'parts of' the US, not the whole country when I said that though tbh. Maybe I should've been clearer.
 
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obviously the US states vary lots in regards to laws, but i think it's still fair to call them collectively draconian in general. so many people in jail for drugs, such a high proportion of people being in jail, the existence of DARE, i think these things speak for themselves in terms of general negative attitude towards drug use. if we are going to talk actual policy then australia is pretty high up there. as well as my above example, the land downunder also has extremely somprehensive analogue laws so that drugs which don't even exist and may never exist are also illegal. it's also very very difficult to tell if you are breaking these laws until you are prosecuted: unless you are an organic chemist.


of course these things aren't necessarily around in dubai and qatar...however these places certainly take the cake for draconium! i was scared shitless when i had to stop off in doha and my girlfriend in dubai, because even TRACES of drugs get you FOUR YEARS JAIL there. seriously. there is currently a swiss guy in jail in dubai because he had THREE POPPY SEEDS on him when he went through. the seeds were from a sandwich he bought at heathrow. and yeah, according to these types of governments, the drug being in your system counts as possession. and in UAE, possession gets you 4 years. no exceptions.

conclusion => fuck dubai, fuck qatar, fuck compulsory sentencing and most importantly, fuck drug policy. fuck.
 
id imagine any competent attorney can get your dui dropped for pot if it shows up in a ua.
 
Even within the US states it can vary by county. Essentially, the judges in my county said "Stop bringing us Pot possession cases, we will not hear them." Now before you get excited, the main reason they say this is because crime and hard drug use is very out of control here. It is one of the top ten most dangerous places to live.
 
Artificial Emotion said:
I've not really been stoned very much in public though. I was more thinking my recollections of being extremely wasted on GBL. I doubt they would really even know if I was stoned in the first place to be honest since it doesn't make me stagger around like alcohol does.

My point was really that the UK is not draconian like places in the US and other countries.
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I went to school for a semester in London and remember on one of my last days, I saw a really drunk guy while having a pint fall out in the street. When I left, he was still laying on the ground and very messed up. He could hardly stand. I was amazed to see police officers talking kindly to him and trying to assist him, assessing if he needed a doctor or not. In the US public intoxication is not as acceptable, at least during the day. Depending on the cop, the guy very well could have been arrested here.

That being said, I also know of many cops who will not arrest a person who is only a beer or two over the limit. I also know plenty of people who have just had there bags of weed taken from them without a charge (before the situation I mentioned on the earlier post). Plenty of cops drive drunk too.
 
^yeah that fits in with my experiences really. It's the way it should be. If the person starts causing trouble, then arrest them for being drunk and disorderly or whatever, but until that happens I see no reason for them to stat punishing you.
 
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