Drug charges usually come about as a result of a police investigation and may include use of a search warrant to conduct a search and seizure of evidence. Rarely are police contacted by people seeking their help to complete drug offenses that have gone bad. Just such a rare event happened to sheriff’s deputies in one Florida community when they responded to a 911 call for assistance.
A 19-year-old woman was attempting to purchase a small quantity of marijuana, but the person from whom she was buying took her money without giving her the drugs. It was at that point that she decided to involve the local deputies by calling 911 asking them to send someone to help her get her marijuana.
The deputies did not help her to get the checks for which she claimed to have paid, but they did find a substance in her pocket that proved to be an illegal drug. She was charged with drug possession and misuse of the emergency call system.
As farfetched as a call asking for police assistance to complete a drug deal might seem to be, this story illustrates how a silly incident can have serious consequences when drug offenses are involved. The woman remained in jail following her arrest on the drug charges because the new charges violated the conditions under which she had been released on prior criminal charges.
Drug possession and drug distribution charges in Florida can result in jail or prison sentences, fines and other penalties in the event of a conviction. In the war on drugs, a dispute over a $5 marijuana deal can quickly escalate into more serious drug offenses that could require the criminal defense skills of an attorney familiar with state and federal drug crimes.
Source: Sun Sentinel, “Woman who called 911 to report drug rip-off was carrying flakka, investigators say,” Wayne K. Roustan, June 11, 2015