What really strikes me from the start is the fact he says it's his fault. So why bother to post here. I thought he was going to tell us that he followed the correct procedures and he got caught. Not getting caught for doing a petty crime. This is to common that I can't even start to explain this in full detail. It wasn't me, I'm in the wrong spot at the wrong time. I'm takling a hit for a friend, cause I'm no snitch. Do I need to continue. So I guess what you are saying if you didn't get bhusted on some petty ass charge you wouldbe still growing. Good luck.
<sigh> it's really sad how uninformed/naive the general public is. this is how it works: 1) if you have weed sitting on your table in plain sight they need no warrant and can come in your house without your permission 2) if you don't have weed in plain sight, they bust in, search your shit, find your weed.. throw it on top of the living room table. take a photograph of it and walaaaa, you magically have weed on your living room table when you opened the door. get it? SECONDLY, if i would have made them prove ANYTHING.. that means we would have had to trial. right? well if they are saying.. hey man we are trying to make you a deal which involves one year of probation. you can fight it, but if you win, we lose and you go home free.. but if whatever happens, lets say you have a shitty jury or if your otherwise great lawyer makes a mistep and you LOSE.. we are throwing the book at you and you'll have to do 10 years in the shitter. what would you pick? fight them and hope you can get the case tossed b/c of no warrant and watch the cop make every lie under the sun during their testimony.. or just say hey, ok i'll take the year probation, tell me where and when you want me to piss?
dude, do have any hands on experience with the legal system? or did you just watch alot of matlock growing up? it doesnt exactly work that way.. there are many hearings before you choose to go to trial or not.. there is the arraignment, and the sounding, the sounding is where your lawyer has the opportunity to take a deposition.. a deposition is where the lawyer would say hey, where is the freakin warrant? but the second he takes this deposition.. there is no more deal, you are going to trial. i didnt want to risk a jury trial because IF i lost the penalties would have been much more severe.. on the same page? why not just take the deal and have no chance of jail time or becoming a convicted felon.. which is essentially the same thing i would have been after if i won the case. the state doesnt want to spend the taxpayers money needlessly, but if you make them do it and loose.. the judge tosses the book at you.
unfortunately this is one of the biggest flaws with our legal system. 97% of cases end in plea bargain. number one reason being fear of the unknown. I dont blame you, I've done the same thing, and would have in your shoes too. The risk isnt worth it so most people take the plea.
yeah its shitty but thats the way it goes.. at first i wanted to fight it! my lawyer said.. hey if you want, i'll fight it for you, i' wont even charge you anything extra if you go to trial.. in fact, i love trials. lets go to trial! but then he asks me, what is the point of the trial.. what am i trying to avoid? he said are you trying to avoid jail time, i said YES, he said are you tring to avoid a conviction on your record i said YES... and then he said what if i can get you both of those things without trial, without running the risk of losing and without a possibility of having the book thrown at me. so i said lets make the deal.. the only time its worth going to trial is if the deal you are being offered still includes you doing many years in jail. shit i saw a guy right before me take a guilty plea on attempted murder for 15 years b/c he would have gotten LIFE oftherwise.. and in florida LIFE mean LIFE.. not 20 years.. so now b/c he took the deal, he'll probably do 5 years in the pen and probably another 5 years probation.
+rep for sharing valuable info. I'm in our great penis shaped state as well good to know I wont be kicked in the balls entirely if I get caught
yeah man, as long as you have no prior convictions, you dont have a firearm in the house, you arent growing within 1000ft of school or park and you have under 24plants/pounds (for some reason even though i only get 2oz per plant.. most state laws use the term pound and plant interchangeably) and you have a halfway decent lawyer, you will get probation and community service for your first offense. possibly even less if you have like 5k-10k to offer as a fine... how do you think dante stallworth got off for killing that dude when he was driving home drunk from the fontainebleau? $$$ baby.. thats all anyone wants.
NOT TRUE! ask any attorney (ya kno, those guys who have studied the actual laws and are trained to fight/support them) if they see a dead body, a person getting raped, a child being molested.. so on and etc. they need not wait for a warrant b/c they are under reasonable suspicion that a crime is being commited. this nulls the need for a warrant and a cop may act in almost anyway they see fit. just like if they walk by a quickie mart and see your dumbass robbing it, they can enter and pop cap in your ass.. they might call in for backup.. but thats it.. they are coming in warrant or not and taking over.
**********ATTENTION!!!******* EVERYONE AT GC.. I WILL ATTEMPT TO MAKE THIS AS ONE OF MY LAST POSTS ON THIS THREAD AS I DO NOT WISH TO MAKE THIS GO ON FOR ETERNITY. I KNOW THERE ARE LOTS OF FLAMERS OUT THERE.. SO GO ON IF YOU MUST. there are a dozen ways to get caught growing which are out of your control... remember that story where the black guy in massachusettes was walking into his own house and the neighbors said he was breaking in, it became a national debate and eventually they all were drinking beer with obama in his back yard.. or you could be totally clean and walk out the house with an ounce for a buddy.. but a cops stops you because you fit a description of someone who commited a crime down the street.. shit, one of your ballast could blow and set your house a blaze.. there are dozens of ways to get popped.. mine happened to be totally my fault.. there is no way to avoid getting caught sometimes... the point of my post was just to inform people who are scared about experiencing the legal system for what they are growing, at the end of the day thats all i was charged with possesion and growing and i was looking at 10 years max penalty.. i just want to put people at ease knowing if they play it smart the world is not over.. with no priors its a slap on the wrist assuming you get a lawyer.. this isnt to say it didnt cost me.. total court costs and legal fees as well as probation monitoring and drug testing will set me back a total of 10k over the next 12 months.. im just saying if you choose to grow, make sure you have a little cash to fall back on.. or else you'll get it worse than me.. my only penalty is to work in a homeless shelter for 100 hours and to piss clean for the next 12 months. i just hope my message hits the poor next sap who thinks his world is over b/c he got busted doing what we all love to do. i remember crying myself to sleep that night in jail thinking that a) i would do some serious jail time b) my parents would be dissappointed and sadded c) i would have to stop growing forever b/c the DEA would create a seperate surveillance squad just for me for eternity. none of this happened, but tons of thoughts race through your head while you are in county lockup.. anyone who has experienced this feel free to chime in. so if you are totally clean and want to grow.. i say go for it.. dont go to sleep paranoid at night.. do what you love.. just know how to play the system smart when or if it goes down. thanks and good night!
Wow, didnt mean to upset you. It was just an idea I was trying get across and I never said I knew everything about the legal system etc. Geez, people on here get so easily upset and just HAVE to start being all shitty about it. Grow up. I think he made the right choice, I would have done the same. It was just a thought I had. So very sorry dearest!
No I don't. It was just a thought. But of course you had to throw in a little dig. You have a fucked up legal system over there. Here in the uk it would be thrown out.
Quote for that mothafuckin TRUTH. guns arent illegal bro, and its a damn good thing. if two armed men (despite whatever social class they might have) forced thier way into my home somehow, i would be glad i have my gun. thats all. NOT saying that it would be a smart or even a sensible thing to shoot the police. (unless thier tryin to confiscate my arms, then its a whole nother discussion). but yeah i agree with you. P.S. i also am not implying that a gun would have helped your situation beachbum, i think you did a great job at getting the minimum penalties in our corrupt system, and you bring up good points about the cops report vs what really happens. thanks for sharing.
After this is all said and done... Which may be never considering how this thread just keeps on going do the risks associated with growing ever justify the benefits of growing your own weed. 10k $$ in fines, a lawyer, all this stress? I'd like to see myself having my own place and growing 1-2 plants but when you read stories like this and hear others growing your own seems insane doesn't it?
Thank you for the post beachbum. Unfortunately this thread has brougth out some really fucking stupid people who dont know dick about the legal system, but dont let it discourage you, theres a lot of intelligent helpful people on this forum. Thanks again bud, hope everything works out for the best.
you're right guns are not illegal, but possesing them in conjunction with another crime being commited such as the cultivation of marijuana.. is likely to get you a multi year sentence causing you to miss out on many valuable years of your life...
From what I've read and learned, if a cop asks to come into your home, DEMAND a search warrant. It takes them an hour to get a search warrant. One hour if they're really rushing, which they won't be, so more like 6-24 hours. During that very limited time you can flush your plants down the toilet and dismantle your grow room/op. If you have 24 hours, then throw the plants away at 3am. But if you only have an hour, flush them because the cops could possibly be staked out watching to see you taking something to the trash. Man this is really ridiculous. Legalize weed already. Pass Prop 19 at the very least. Californians have a governor who smoked weed on tape in "Pumping Iron" but opposes Prop 19.
Don't own a gun at all if you're growing. If they get a search warrant and find your weed, they're also going to find your gun. Even owning a gun + possession will land you in prison, let alone gun + growing. Just don't put yourself in a situation where you do have to own a gun.