Can you get in trouble for...

...being on ecstasy? And this is assuming that the person doesn't have anything actually on them because they already took it. I started thinking about it today after I overheard some people talking about it, but I was curious to see if anyone on OT actually knew anything concrete about the matter. Would age matter? Location?

Like any drug I think it's a crime to be intoxicated.

Now I think this extends to where you are and what you're doing. If you're at home I'm not sure. Out in public (a club) it's probably a crime.

But I'm not sure if you could get charged for posession.

I'd actually like to know. I've wondered about this before, but without looking up a lw book it's not exactly public knowledge.

Drug arrests are almost exlusively for possession. The only instance I can think of where people are arrested for having something in their system is if they're driving. You can be arrested for disorderly conduct at a public place, but no, they're not going to go down to a club, pick someone at random, test them, and charge them with being under the influence. As far as I can tell, it's not technically illegal to be on illegal drugs, it's only illegal to posses, sell, and manufacture them, and to operate vehicles or other machinary while under their influence.

Like any drug I think it's a crime to be intoxicated.

Now I think this extends to where you are and what you're doing. If you're at home I'm not sure. Out in public (a club) it's probably a crime.

But I'm not sure if you could get charged for posession.

DigitalExile

This part I'm fairly sure is false, but it's due to a technicality. Being intoxicated is not condoned, but it's only enforced through possesion, cultivation, sale, and public decency laws, not through laws against intoxication itself.

I have never heard of anyone being prosecuted for intoxication and nothing else. They don't have the authority to actually test for intoxication unless you're doing something illegal, and then they'll usually charge you with something else.

Yeah...I'm not sure if they can charge you with anything, depends on where you live, I got mandatory drug counseling.

Of course.

Yeah...I'm not sure if they can charge you with anything, depends on where you live, I got mandatory drug counseling.

Tiefster

If you're driving, or in public, yeah you can get in trouble with the law.

[QUOTE="Tiefster"]

Yeah...I'm not sure if they can charge you with anything, depends on where you live, I got mandatory drug counseling.

Neon-Tiger

How in the world could you not?

Public intoxication is the only crime you can be charged for. The supreme court ruled that people have the right to consume an substance they wished to, just not to possess, extract, cultivate, sell or buy certain substances.Big_player

How in the world could you not?

Theokhoth

[QUOTE="Big_player"]Public intoxication is the only crime you can be charged for. The supreme court ruled that people have the right to consume an substance they wished to, just not to possess, extract, cultivate, sell or buy certain substances.Neon-Tiger

Edit: This is also the irony of people who want decriminalization, it only allows for possession to be legal while producing and trading it is still a crime. So at some point in the process of arriving to possession you have committed a crime.

[QUOTE="Big_player"]Public intoxication is the only crime you can be charged for. The supreme court ruled that people have the right to consume an substance they wished to, just not to possess, extract, cultivate, sell or buy certain substances.Neon-Tiger

[QUOTE="Theokhoth"]

How in the world could you not?

Neon-Tiger

[QUOTE="Neon-Tiger"][QUOTE="Theokhoth"]

How in the world could you not?

LJS9502_basic

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"]

[QUOTE="Neon-Tiger"] By doing it at home and not going out until the effects go away?Big_player

I'd say no, but i never took ectasy due to being too afraid of it, so im not sure how noticible you act while under it

[QUOTE="Neon-Tiger"][QUOTE="Big_player"]Public intoxication is the only crime you can be charged for. The supreme court ruled that people have the right to consume an substance they wished to, just not to possess, extract, cultivate, sell or buy certain substances.Big_player

Edit: This is also the irony of people who want decriminalization, it only allows for possession to be legal while producing and trading it is still a crime. So at some point in the process of arriving to possession you have committed a crime.

I can't really speak for all drugs because I know the legalization arguments for harder drugs are different than the ones for cannabis, but with cannabis we want it regulated and sold like alcohol or tobacco. So no, you could buy it legally from a licensed vendor and not ever commit a crime, but if you cultivate in your backyard and sell it or buy from someone who does so it is a crime, the same way it's a crime to make whiskey in your bathtub and sell it in your backyard or grow tobacco and sell it.

Also, the point to legalizing possession and criminalizing sale is to go after the suppliers instead of the addicts. They're both involved in illegal activities, yes, but the dealers are the ones who create the market, who make a profit, and who generally cause the most visible and wide-reaching problems associated with the drug problem. The addicts, on the other hand, typically hurt only themselves and need treatment rather than punishment. We have a pretty sizable prison overpopulation problem, and it got to be that way because we threw addicts in prison for possession crimes. Not only does this deny them treatment, but it puts them in direct contact with criminal culture and tends to push them to harsher criminal actions. By going after the dealer instead not only do you reduce overpopulation by putting a proportionally smaller number of offenders in prison, but you also keep addicts isolated from the larger criminal culture and grant them proper treatment.