Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Are there noteworthy points here? Re: detain/search etc.

The key to whether he can successfully argue that the drugs were for personal use is how many of these baggies he had. If he had one or two his cances will be much better than if he had forty or fifty.

Another important question is what kind of drug they contained. While 1/16 of an ounce of some drugs is enough for one dose, the same amount of other drugs might be several doses. The more doses your friend had, the less likely it becomes that a personal use argument will succeed.

The scale poses a big problem here. Users don't normally have such scales, and certainly don't keep them in their cars. My sense is that the evidence here clearly shows that *someone* using the car was dealing drugs, and that the main issue will be whether it was your friend or someone else.

It may not matter much that police didn't catch your friend in the act of selling, since other evidence can prove this point. If the quantity of drugs suggests that they were intended for sale, that can be enough by itself to secure a conviction. Alternatively, your friend may have had "pay/owe sheets", which contain records of sales and of outstanding debts. There may be witnesses who will testify that they saw your friend selling in the past. Maybe a distributor has identified your friend as one of his middlemen. Or maybe the police later searched your friend's home and found more evidence there.

The fact that your friend didn't own the car is not significant. All that matters is whether he was in possession of the drugs, and people routinely have possessions in other people's homes, offices, cars, etc. - especially where the owner has given them permission to use her property.

Your friend's denial that the scale was his may not persuade anyone, especially if it turns out that there is other evidence suggesting that he owns it.

Since it seems your friend's only argument is that the car and its contents didn't belong to him, he should be able to identify its true owner. If there is evidence suggesting the owner or some other person owned the scale and the drugs then your friend's chances are good. If not, well, he won't be the only inmate who denied owning the drugs which got him convicted.

Re: Are there noteworthy points here? Re: detain/search etc.

It is still illegal to have the drugs whether or not for personal use.