Zonacat

Hi. This is my first post here and I hope you guys can give me your opinion about my situation.... I found this forum via NORML's website.


I live in San Diego. I smoke and have smoked pretty regularly for about 18 yrs now. Give or take a few months when I was working as a FedEx courier and when I was preggo. Anyways, I am a 35 yr old chick,and I always keep my "makeup bag" with me. I have driven from FL to CA 4x, CA to AZ over 200x etc. Always with my "makeup bag". Most I have at any given time is a Z. Usually more like a quarter or so in my makeup bag and keep the rest of my Z in my home..I keep it with my pipe, and screens and a lighter. I am pretty stealth and if you met me you would never think I am the stoner I am....

PLEASE bare with me, this story is long and I am kinda freaking out.

So on thursday night, I was driving my "mom sedan" from S.D. to Lake Havasu via Yuma. I went to U of AZ and I have driven the S.D. - AZ drive hundreds of times. This time I was stopped, asked where I was going, and told "god bless" as I was waved through. At that moment the Dog that was to the side of my car evidently started to freak ?? and they asked me to pull over to secondary. My two sons ages 3 AND 5 were sitting watching a dvd and didn't know what was going on. Border patrol guy asks me if I consent to a search of my car. I say NO. reason being it is a new car. He then says the dogs actions are probable cause for a search and the dog is trained to find narcotics, people, or pot. I shit, and think omg...my kids....so I admit to the pot ( it was my makeup bag with a quarter in it and 2 pipes) they proceed to check the entire car ( finding nothing) meanwhile my 2 kids are crying and asking if I am going to jail I say "everything is going to be ok" yada yada yada....dudes end up leaving us out of the car aprox 45 minutes. Tell me it is a felony in Az to have pot, and that they are going to release me after they arrest me (IF) I answer all Q. Now, IF my kids were not with me I would have shut the eff up and waited for a cop and just kept silent. But my fear was my kids were going to be put in CPS or something till my hubby could get from Havasu (he was already there) to pick them up OK, so I give them the makeup bag, they allow me to put the kids in the car ( thank g-d) and then read me my rights. I never signed anything and they let me go....no sig on a ticket or anything?! My whole thing is ( I am calling an atty tomorrow) WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME? They are wasting our federal tax dollars on dogs busting effing MOMS going to the GD river? What Nazi country have we turned into? I was also told during questioning..."Were you the one who packed the contraband" and he kicked my bench as he asked...like intimidating me to say yes...I was scared ( again for the sake of the kids) that if I said no he would be like, ok you aren't going to be released. I am so clueless bc he wasn't a Cop per se, but a border patrol/national security officer. Am I screwed? Do any of you have experience in this? I am shitting bc I have driven through these things with pot prob 2000 times. Anyone else been nabbed by a drug dog? Any advice for me? Am I pot free the rest of summer at Havasu? GASP!! SHIT.

THANKS, Jodi

troublemaker_42

Its a numbers game, and you number was up. Simply passing through checkpoints with no problems in the past doesn't mean its a good idea, and eventually, you were bound to be caught if you made a habit of it. How being arrested for having something that is illegal to possess is the equivalent of this becoming a Nazi country is beyond me. You knew marijuana was ilegal, you got caught with it in your possession, you were arrested. Seems pretty simple to me. I don't mean to sound harsh, and I'm not saying the marijuana laws are right, but they do exist, and with your completely nonchalant attitude towards carrying it through check points and whatnot, it was simply a matter of time before you were aught. it happened, and now you're going to have to pay the consequences. Its scary and intimidating, as i well know, but until marijuana is legalized, simply by having it you open yourself up to being arrested. What I don't get is that you said if you didn't have your kids with you, you'd shut up and wait for a real cop. Sorry to break the news to you, but boarder patrol agents are sworn law enforcement officers, and can enforce the law with every bit as much authority as any other cop could have. Its not as if INS has less power than the highway patrol or whatever......and not to add more dread to your plate, but if you get a felony charge, you run a real possibility of being incarcerated, or suffering through a lot more restrictions than simply not having any pot at havasu this summer. At a minimum, you're looking at probation, likely for a year or two, which can include drug testing and myrid other restrictions. A felony conviction is going to affect your life much more than simp[ly not being able to bring pot to the lake with you

Buzzby

I'm wondering how a border patrol officer, who is federal, would be charging you with a felony under AZ state law. TM42?

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troublemaker_42

Its quite possibly for LEO's to be cross deputized, meaning they could be sworn officers both at the federal level as well as the state level. How common that is among Boarder patrol agents is information I do not have, but I know it does happen elsewhere occasionally. An example....I was arrested by a federal drug task force member. The task force is headed by the FBI, but uses local manpower, as well as federal agents. I believe the officer are cross deputized to enforce federal laws as well as state and local laws. Its becoming quite common to charge methamphetamine dealers under federal law whnever applicable due to harsher sentencing guidelines.

melman

But I don't see what happened,I must be missing something. Did all this occur on the roadside, or were you taken somewhere? Regardless if you weren't given some kind of paperwork of some type stating charge , court date , officers name / badge# ,etc. it looks as if you just may be lucky enough to have been intimidated and let go. Something we all should be aware of ... During interrogation a cop can say anything, he can tell you the moon is made of blue cheese, ANYTHING just to try to get you to confess to whatever he may believe you are not telling him/her.
Like troublemaker said what type of LEO it is is unimportant. Your game warden has more authoruty than any other State officer regardless of what agency they are from.(they can enforce all the same laws that the others can PLUS the game laws.)
Usually search dogs (at least the ones I know of) Have to be given the command to search,before they actually do. and just because a dog does search AND finds something doesn't necessarily mean that all is lost either. When I lived in Knoxville ,Tn there was a case where a dog alerted on a camper of folks that were on vacation well they got a good lawyer and it turns out that this particular dog only had about a 40% sucess rate on alerts and the case got thrown out (insufficient reason to search or something like that)and they had pounds of the green.(they still lost all the green) any way you may be able to research the story and find out more. It was around 2000-2002 I believe I don't remember the name of the Newspaper but I'm pretty sure it WAS NOT the k-ville news-sentinel they almost never say anything bad about LEO's even when it is warranted.

troublemaker_42

Just because she wasn't issued any paperwork doesn't mean charges aren't going to be filed. More than likely, she'll be issued any pertinent paperwor by mail, including what charges she is facing along with a court date.

Zonacat

Thanks. I am not upset I was caught, I am more perplexed.

I just never even thought driving through a border patrol checkpoint could get me nabbed for recreational amounts of pot.

I am not upset about the "catch" per se, because you are right my time was up. I am more perplexed about why I didn't get any paperwork. I am also confused as to what my rights were with them versus "regular" police. My point was, if I was without small kids in the car, I would not have given up my makeup bag immediatly. I would have 1) asked if I am being arrested. 2) If I was I would not have given the makeup bag, and let them call the local police or whomever and let them take me back to yuma (this was like 30 miles east of Yuma on the 95) and dealt with it after I called an atty. But the fact the guy told me that if I admitted my kids and I would be let go, seems like "bribary" kinda....

Also, my comment about Nazis was meant in the sense that I am a white woman traveling in MY country 40 miles from the border. I am NOT who the border patrol should be worried about right now. If it was a border it is one thing, but a random checkpoint IN my country should not be bothering with a caucasion mom in a high end sedan. JMO I realize, but still.....The Irony here is I am pro-border control. I am one of those people who support the minute men etc. However using our tax dollars to nab people like me is just wrong IMO of course.

Thanks folks. Calling an atty in a hour. Wish me luck. Jodi

phuzz01

In my state, misdemeanors have a statute of limitations of one year. Felonies (other than sexual assault and homicide) have a statute of limitations of seven years.

That means that if they intend to charge you with a misdemeanor (such as simple possession), they could wait up to a year before they served you with paperwork. If they intend to charge you with a felony (such as possession with intent to distribute), they could wait up to seven years. So just because you were not arrested right then, doesn't mean that it is not coming down the pike.

melman

You just educated me on something. I wasn't aware that if you weren't charged right then they could do so later.

Mamabudz

AH!

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