this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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Maybe, but what prosecutor would pursue that? Hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt if all you have is a bag of oregano and the testimony of a few children that faked being high. Not a great use of time, and all for one 17 year old kid
Are you familiar with the United States? It doesn’t sound like it. In many towns, whether small cities, affluent suburbs or large cities, police, DAs and courts seemingly have nothing better to do. In the high school I attended in suburban New England they absolutely would have prosecuted a teenager who tried selling imitation drugs. I knew people who were targeted by police for years and eventually went through all sorts of police and court processes for less than 2 grams of weed.
The only way they wouldn’t have is if the family had enough money to get great lawyers, or they were related to someone who worked for the local government or school.
I came up in a small town and they were thrilled at any opportunity to bust one of us with a little marijuana and they prosecuted as intensely as they could. My town was famous for sending kids to jail rather than diversionary programs.
Yep! People think of it as an urban thing (i think?) but small city police use it as a way to abuse the fuck out of people.
Shrug I live in the Bay which I guess isn’t terribly representative of the rest of the US? I went to high school in Texas though and we only had one student arrested, and he was dealing.
Sorry for your experiences! Sounds awful
Definitely varies by region or specific cities. And thanks! Yeah, the police and school administration where I lived were insanely punitive and pretty much out to get counter-culture type kids. I had a bunch of conflict with a middle school vice principal and a few years after I left he was fired for punching a student... so... they moved him to Principal of an elementary school. Our HS security guard was an ex DEA agent and he and the admin were obsessed with the idea of busting kids for smoking weed. Local cops were obsessed with the idea of pulling us over and searching us and the car, and we were 15-18. We didn't realize we could say no. One time we bought a bong at a local head shop and it turned out the cops were staking it out and followed us, then claimed the driver made a 'rolling stop' 100 feet before we got to the next city limits. We'd also get stopped just driving around not doing anything, if they saw 2-3 teenagers in a car. So, both the school and local police were pretty tough to deal with. In a midwestern town we moved to, my brother and a friend had this one cop who had it out for them who would walk up and just start jamming his hands in their pockets "am I going to find anything? am I going to stab myself on a needle?" (which makes no sense, they never did/got busted for IV drugs). I went into my 20s thinking I'd always have to be concerned about being pulled over and searched but when I moved to the SW it didn't happen again.
All that the OOP asked was if it was legal, not if it would actually be prosecuted. You're right that there's no way anon would end up in jail for this but it's not legal either.