☮ Social ☮ PD Social Distancing Talk Thread: Swirly Congregation That's 100% Pandemic-Proof

[yepyepwoah]

that sucks. It's not just a paraphanelia ticket? It's an actual weed charge?

If you gotta spend $$$$. Talk to a lawyer. Can't hurt, might help.

 

[Img_9999]

Wow, Xorkoth is back

My bad luck just keeps coming around in my Bad Luck Car. I got pulled tonight for a busted headlight while giving a friend a ride to town. Turns out my tags are expired which I'm normally on top of but this last month I've been depressed as fuck and not keeping up with my shit.

They ran a drug dog around my car and it alerted (like they always do). K9 officer was a real dick and was ordering me around like the Detective that beat my ass for fun 10 years ago. Long story short they found an old glass pipe that I thought I'd lost in my move last year crammed between the backseats of my car. Got charged for that along with two other charges for my headlight/expired tags. I now have three separate court dates because they want to extort as much cash out of me as possible and I'm now legally screwed of finding employment with the companies I have applications in with. I just got a call back this morning too.

From a quick look at my local laws it looks like I'm going to be doing drug classes, peeing in a cup for 6 months, and paying about $2k between lawyer fees and court costs all over a $10 pipe I only smoked CBD/hemp out of. This fucking sucks, I was planning on spending that money on badly needed dental work and I'm in the process of buying land and was just about to build a tiny house on it. I'm also working on getting permits to grow hemp legally on my farm and just might have fucked myself on starting my own business. All over a $10 glass bowl.

I really hate prohibition.

What the fuck, that sucks so much. It's crazy how drug laws are so draconian in the US. Where I live (South America), weed is still illegal, but the laws are kinda ambiguous, if the cops find you with stuff they can't really do much unless they can prove you were planning to sell. Usually the criteria used for that is the amount of drugs you have on you, but if they find like, a gram of weed on you or something, worst that can happen is they take it away from you. If you have suspicious amounts they can take you to court, but the law doesnt even mention a specific quantity.

I guess part of the difference is here drugs abuse is seen as a public health issue, so users are pathologized instead of criminalized. The real enemy for the state is the drug trafficker here.

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

Not to mention they bring a K9 unit when your tags are expired??

Who does that, don't those units cost a fortune, and all that to potentially fuck over some guy, that's nuts

 

[cosmic charlie]

That's really horrible to hear Headphones. It's really cruel the way the legal system views people who use this healthy medicine. Maybe you can prove it was just for CBD and they can test the pipe's resin. Talk to a lawyer and see what they say.

Wish you the best man, i know this sucks

 

[Xorkoth]

I've been building up a sleep deficit and this morning I accidentally slept until 11:30, missed a work meeting, and now my head feels stuffed with cotton. I've got a band practice after work today and a show tomorrow, a street festival in Raleigh where I expect we'll have a lot of people, probably more than I've ever played for before. Gotta make sure to get good sleep tonight and be on my game tomorrow. I probably shouldn't have gone out last night...

that sucks. It's not just a paraphanelia ticket? It's an actual weed charge?

In many states (including the one Headphones and I live in), weed under an ounce is just a ticket and you don't have to go to court, but paraphernalia is an actual court-related charge. When I got my DUI and went to court, like 5 people went before me and they were all for paraphernalia. It's so stupid.

That's awful man. Meanwhile in Colorado, California, Oregon, etc, etc including Washington DC the fucking capital of the country, people are legally buying and smoking weed.

It's extortion is what it is

 

[Bagseed]

so having a pipe is more illegal than an actual ounce of bud?

crazy shit

 

[Xorkoth]

Yep, it's stupid. It was like that growing up in Illinois, too. If it has any marijuana residue in it, it's illegal. But if it's clean or just had tobacco smoked out of it, it's fine. And there are head shops everywhere that sell glass. It's a weird situation.

 

[phenethylo J]

In some states you can actually get a manufacturing charge for having a grinder with a screen which in addition to adding the weight of the grinder to the weight of what ever cannabis is inside can have you doing some serious time.

 

[Img_9999]

Drugs laws are the most stupid laws to ever be vomited by the state apparatus. Sometimes I think that if the cops were to break into my house and found my stash, I would most probably en up in jail just because of its volume. (Not really, friends at the intelligence service reading this, I have no drugs at home and the stories narrated by this account are fictional :giggle: )

And when I think about it, it sounds so absurd, lol. I'm completely harmless, why should I be locked up lol.
But somehow governments worldwide decided drug users are threat? Ridiculous to think about.

 

[Xorkoth]

It is indeed absurd, but slowly changing. It's a really weird in-between now with weed especially. Entire countries have legalized it and in the US it's getting legalized by state with increasing speed. Yet you can still get fucked for having a pipe or a grinder, or go to jail for selling weed (or if the cops want, they can pretend you had intent to sell), while at the same time corporations are selling weed legally and making shit tons of money for the state. It's pure madness. It's never made sense and it never will make sense to lock someone up or even penalize them for what they choose to put in their own bodies, if they're not causing harm to anyone. Yeah, if someone drives and fucks something up on drugs, or steals some shit, or whatever, they should be penalized for those crimes. But not simply for owning or consuming drugs. It's such an egregious violation of personal space. If I want to get high, I should be able to get high. It's my life.

My friend's old dealer was a good friend of him, and I got to know him some too. He was a 20 year old black guy, such a nice person. To help support his family, he sold weed. He was a great dealer, he didn't even smoke it, it was just a way he could make money and help out his parents and siblings and girlfriend and kid. He also started and ran a non-profit that bought school supplies and clothes and stuff for people in need in the community. A really stand-up guy who was doing good things and making peoples' lives better. Well, an acquaintence of his got busted and turned rat on him. He asked him if he could get any xanax, and he was like I don't do that, but the guy was a friend (so he thought) and begged and he was like okay, well I know someone, I can hook you up. So he got the xanax and told his rat friend to meet up with him somewhere. When he got there, two plainclothes cops attacked him. He had no idea they were cops, so he fought back and punched one in the face. Then he got arrested and charged with selling weed, selling 1000 xanax bars, and assault on a police officer. Eventually they dropped the weed charges which is actually the only thing he was "guilty" of, and he's in jail for like 10 years. It's really fucking sad, and super fucked up. Now he can't do his good work and his family's probably fucked too. It pissed me off so much. it's entrapment. But that's the kind of stuff that goes down when you have drug prohibition.

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

Completely ridiculous. I have to say that in Europe the laws are nowhere near that bad, although many countries are very far from legalizing any sort of recreational drug. Also I'm pretty sure that that kind of entrapment would get destroyed by a lawyer in a court case.

 

[phenethylo J]

Some years back one lawmaker who was an ex crack head kept repeatedly trying and failing to get the sale of any type of pipe that could be used for marijuana banned. In the end the law just was made so it's just illegal to sell it to someone if you know they will use it for weed; which is how it already was.

This was an actual ad they ran against mmj which got defeated even though it technically won 58% to 42% it had to be 60% due to it being a ballot initiative.

Thank god it passed the second time; never imagined I'd be able to legally buy oil and weed here and get it delivered right to my house like a pizza.

 

[Xorkoth]

Jesus christ... weed as a date rape drug? What the fuck? That's some Reefer Madness-level shit right there.

 

[HeadphonesandLSD]

so having a pipe is more illegal than an actual ounce of bud?

crazy shit

My state is all kinds of retarded. I'm just thankful I got caught with it now and not a few years ago before the changed the laws. Used to be a Class 1 Misdemeanor (meaning anything worse is a felony). For Cannabis pipes they relaxed the laws somewhat but everything else is still under the old law. So the baggy/tie on a bag of powder can land you more time than just the drug itself. The only exception is needles and only then if they're on your person and you alert the cops about them before they stick their hands down your pants.

I don't know if they're like this everywhere but locally our cops are grade A assholes. The drug dog is brought out for _every_ stop they do so they have a legal excuse to search you and the car. They beat the fuck out of people all of the time for fun as I found out one night at 2am when I happened upon some bored detectives. It's like a game to them and it takes every bit of self control I have not to start throwing punches when they order me around like I'm nobody and smugly chuckle about the fact that you can't do anything about it. I didn't hate cops until I found out how horrible they are. The sad thing is they're the ones moving the most drugs in and out of this area and nothing will ever be done about it because our local sheriff wines and dines with the brass in D.C. As long as the cocaine keeps moving over the state line no one outside of the area will give any fucks about how the locals are treated.

I am just very lucky that:
-I no longer use/carry pills as each one is considered a felony outside of the prescription bottle even if they're prescribed to you
-I forgot my firearm at home which I typically carry everywhere

I'm just going to chalk it up to my luck catching up to me and deal with it. Not much else I can do about it but pay the fines, take the hit on my record, and keep fighting for legalized cannabis in my state. I can't claim it was just CBD because I let other people use that pipe so I'm sure there is enough THC in it to prove the state's case. I'll bring it up with the lawyer but I doubt that's going to get me off the hook. Most likely I'm facing probation and lucky not to be doing jail time for it.

Yes getting caught with a pipe is worse than 1/2oz or less of Cannabis. If it were a personal amount of cannabis it'd be a simple fine. Since it was a pipe I'm going to be issued a warrant for my arrest if I don't show up to court and they'll ruin my life if I don't pay them for drug classes, attend NA for 16+ hours, and most likely I'm going to lose my drivers license for 3-6 months. All while they yell at me for not being employed while I'm forced to explain the blight on my record to everyone that interviews me and passes me up for the 500+ people lined up around the block for the same job. In addition my rights to carry a firearm are probably gone for a long time if not for the rest of my life leaving me unable to defend myself in a bad area where the cops wait until everyone is dead before showing up.

 

[phenethylo J]

wtf you can get charged with a felony for having meds outside of their bottle even if you have a script.

I always carry mine in a bag in my wallet; not walking around with a fanny pack full of pill bottles.

From what I heard I can't even get a fire arm license because I have an mmj card.

So glad I never got arrested but had some close calls. Once 12 years ago my friend accidently ran a red light and we got pulled over. Fucking dumb ass friend in the front passenger seat ran because he had a warrant for some stupid non-violent non-drug related crime. My friend driving got a gun pointed to his head and the dude that ran got tazed. I slid quart I was drinking under the seat just in time. Some how the cop ended up not searching us due my friends smooth coked up talk which was lucky since there was also coke, xanax and weed in the car. Damn I'd of been fucked and well as my friends more so since I was under 21 and they were over.

 

[HeadphonesandLSD]

wtf you can get charged with a felony for having meds outside of their bottle even if you have a script.

You sure can and it's a felony for each individual pill. They usually plea it down to one big felony when you go to court. I've seen multiple friends end up in jail over this. It has gotten a lot worse since the opioid crisis got into the news.

From what I heard I can't even get a fire arm license because I have an mmj card.

That's correct because of the way concealed carry laws are set-up. Someone prescribed all types of mind altering chemicals from a doctor is a-okay but if you smoke pot you'll get denied one every time. When I applied for my license the first question was about smoking pot. I'm just bummed now because I worked so hard to get my CCL and it kept me out of trouble for a long time. The way the police interacted with me changed instantly once I had one on my record. I went from getting drug out of cars, beaten, and profiled to hearing "Yes, Sir" and "Mr. <lastname>". They started treating me like a person again because they know if you have the CCL you've passed federal background checks and haven't had any major troubles with the law.

So glad I never got arrested but had some close calls. Once 12 years ago my friend accidently ran a red light and we got pulled over. Fucking dumb ass friend in the front passenger seat ran because he had a warrant for some stupid non-violent non-drug related crime. My friend driving got a gun pointed to his head and the dude that ran got tazed. I slid quart I was drinking under the seat just in time. Some how the cop ended up not searching us due my friends smooth coked up talk which was lucky since there was also coke, xanax and weed in the car. Damn I'd of been fucked and well as my friends more so since I was under 21 and they were over.

That was close and I've been in similar situations myself. I'm trying not to get too mad about what happened last night because there were other times they could have caught me with multiple felonies and I got turned lose without being searched. I was once in a situation like you described with a pound of cannabis on my person. That was back before the laws were relaxed in my state so if I would have gotten caught I would have been facing 25 years in prison minimum. There were other nights during my run with opioids where I took chances and carried multiple felonies on me pretty much at all times. Just lucky it never got me into trouble.

I will admit this has been a bit of a wake-up call. Tomorrow I'm going to get my car fixed up and legal again and pay the fines/have the police sign off on the repairs. After that I'm going to get proactive about finding employment again. I laid around the house depressed all day and I can't slip back into that mind state because I know where it leads. I want to be employed and an upstanding citizen again by the time I need to be in court for this glass pipe charged. Going to talk to a good lawyer this week and see what my options are. I really want to avoid the drug classes if I can help it because I don't want to be in a room with heavy opioid users. I'm fearful that it'll just lead back to the problems I had many years ago. I'm hopeful that maybe the judge will understand and let me do community service instead. Which is something I want to get active in anyway. In fact, tomorrow after I get my car legal I'll probably stop by the local Food Pantry and see if they need a hand with anything. If I'm not gainfully employed I might as well be helping out the local community.

 

[phenethylo J]

I was completely fucked up too so if the cop who didn't even notice me until he was letting us go talked to me at all he'd of known I was on a bunch of shit.

Thankfully the only time I ever got searched by a cop I had nothing on me. When I was allot younger there where so many times we'd be tailed by cops making every turn we did when leaving the hood making every turn we did before eventually leaving off in a different direction. So glad I stopped that life style a long time ago. Kinda depressing when your pulling out of your dealer's alley and little 12 year old hood rats on the corner are knocking on your window trying to sell you weed and pills.

 

[Xorkoth]

I don't know if they're like this everywhere but locally our cops are grade A assholes. The drug dog is brought out for _every_ stop they do so they have a legal excuse to search you and the car. They beat the fuck out of people all of the time for fun as I found out one night at 2am when I happened upon some bored detectives. It's like a game to them and it takes every bit of self control I have not to start throwing punches when they order me around like I'm nobody and smugly chuckle about the fact that you can't do anything about it. I didn't hate cops until I found out how horrible they are. The sad thing is they're the ones moving the most drugs in and out of this area and nothing will ever be done about it because our local sheriff wines and dines with the brass in D.C. As long as the cocaine keeps moving over the state line no one outside of the area will give any fucks about how the locals are treated.

Wow man that sucks, where I live the cops are pretty cool, they've been nice to me whenever I've encountered them. However you can see that they still get people for paraphernalia charges if you go into court. But I felt like, in my DUI, the cop was doing everything he could to be kind and polite and other than getting arrested for DUI, that was all that happened.

 

[Help?!?!]

Hahaha my one felony was for possession of aMT and 2c-B. The judge said it was the first time anyone in Ohio to be charged with it. They didn't even know what they were. It was stupid as fuck....

 

[Xorkoth]

Haha wow. "Hmm, I have no idea what these powders are but apparently you're not supposed to have them? Felony I guess"