Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

How does a drug dealing case get prosecuted?

What kind of evidence is necessary to convict someone of possession of an illicit substance with the intent of distribution?

I can understand if police pull someone over, smell marijuana smoke, search the car and find several bags of drugs and a scale.

But if someone was much smarter than that, and only carried around as much as he needed for one sale at a time, he picked up the money at one location and transferred the items in another location, only spoke in code etc. etc,

how would a prosecutor be able to hit him with distribution?


Asked on 3/21/09, 9:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jacek W. Lentz Law Offices of Jacek W. Lentz

Re: How does a drug dealing case get prosecuted?

There is no fixed standard for when a charge for possession with intent will be prosecuted. Intent can be inferred via evidence such as scales, packaging materials, pay owe sheets, cell phone messages, cash, etc. These items are often referred to as indicia of sales - the more of them are present the stronger the case for a distribution or sales, of course.

I have been involved in cases where the prosecution filed sales cases based upon a small amount of drugs and nothing else. While these cases are a lot easier to defend, they do happen and they do not necessarily automatically go away.

Jacek W. Lentz, Esq.

310.273.1361

www.lentzlawfirm.com

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Answered on 3/21/09, 11:14 pm


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