No jail time, no convictions in marijuana transportation case

Despite being caught transporting approximately 35 pounds of marijuana across the country, my clients won’t have to spend any time in prison after I worked out an excellent plea deal with the reasonable district attorney in Carson County, Texas. My clients were pulled over along I-40 in the Texas Panhandle, and we were prepared to contest the legitimacy of the stop unless we achieved a reasonable plea bargain. The driver was adamant that his passenger's case be dismissed due to the passenger’s lack of knowledge of the illegal contents of the trunk. Eventually, the prosecutor agreed, so the passenger’s case was dismissed, and he’ll be eligible to expunge all records of the arrest in about 2.5 years. Meanwhile, the driver won’t even have a felony conviction on his record because I worked out a deferred adjudication, meaning that as long as the defendant abides by the terms of his probation, a conviction won’t be entered in the case. The catch was that he had to pay over $6500 in various fines and court costs. Still, that’s a lot better than facing the penalty range of a third-degree felony (2-10 years in the state prison, which isn’t fun for first-timers).

Also, the outcome represents an implicit understanding that marijuana isn’t a terrible drug like methamphetamine, cocaine, or heroin. In fact, most of the people who were supposed to receive my clients’ marijuana were cancer patients who use it as medicine to help cope with the side effects of chemotherapy. Even though the expensive fines may seem quite harsh, that money will go to good use in the Texas Panhandle, as it can be used towards public goods, such as education and environmental initiatives. In the end, that’s a true win-win!