When Loaning Your Roommate a Xanax Bar Makes You a Drug Dealer

Hey, Can You Spare a Couple of Xanax Bars?

National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences of Conviction, or how a minor drug offense can ruin your life. Collateral consequences are the bad things that happen to a person convicted of a crime, in addition to the criminal penalties themselves (direct consequences). If you are charged with a crime, before you plead guilty you owe it to yourself to know what effect a conviction may have on your employment, eligibility to enter the military, obtain financial aid for college, obtain or keep a professional license, have a hunting license, own a firearm, register as a sex offender, and so on. The ABA prepared this interactive website at the direction of Congress. ____________________________________________________________________________________

Hey, Can You Loan Me a Xanax Bar? Did you know that if you give a friend a Xanax bar, diet pill, Adderall pill, or prescription sleeping pill you’ve just committed the felony crime of distributing a controlled substance and could go to prison and be fined up to $10,000? If you accept money or anything of value, the offense level goes up (longer sentence). Police departments across the nation, including Kerrville, use snitches to set up their friends. They even sign written “confidential informant” contracts. Say Mary Smith gets busted for a little cocaine. If she’ll rat on her friends, her charges go away. So, Mary calls her friend Suzy and says she has a big exam and has to pull an all-nighter, could you sell me a few Adderall. The police officers tell Mary to ask Suzy to meet her outside the campus bookstore. Guess what – now they can enhance the charge to delivery in a drug free zone, which kicks the offense to the next highest level. Of course all the telephone calls are recorded, and Mary will be wearing a wire when she meets Suzy. Another trick the police use is to set the meet in or near a city or state park, or within 1,000 feet of a playground or school. Once they bust Suzy, then it’s her turn to be a snitch. I’ve noticed another disturbing trend. A boy and girl have consensual sex, the girl’s parents find out and can’t believe their little angel would do something so vile, the girl cries rape or claims she was so drunk she couldn’t defend herself. The law almost always takes the girl’s side, the boy gets charged with sexual assault, expelled from school, and depending on his age (under 17 is still a minor) can get sent to reform school or prison. Meanwhile, there are con-men running all around the Hill Country lying, cheating and stealing with impunity. I reported one of them who committed perjury in a deposition by claiming he was a “highly decorated Vietnam vet” who was awarded the Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Purple Heart flying helicopters, when the truth is that he was in the National Guard and never left the US. But it doesn’t involve drugs, so the police and prosecutors here don’t care.

For more information, contact the Law Office of Richard Ellison, P.C. for a consultation.