Drug Offenses
State legislatures, and also the United States Congress, have enacted many laws forbidding the manufacture, distribution, and even the simple possession of various substances generally known as "drugs." In addition to well known drugs of abuse, that is "street drugs," such as cocaine and heroin, many chemical compounds frequently used by physicians to treat injuries, diseases, or other medical conditions are strictly regulated. Severe penalties may be imposed unless compliance with the regulations is exact. Even the possession or cultivation of a plant or fungus, in raw, natural, unrefined form, may be punished by law.
In Massachusetts, drug offenses run the gamut from civil infractions, which can be punished only by a fine (possession of small amounts of marijuana, for instance), to very serious felonies carrying long mandatory prison sentences. At the heart of almost all drug charges (with a few exceptions) is an allegation that the defendant "did possess" a "controlled substance," as defined by law. Proving that any substance is, in fact, "controlled" usually requires the testimony of a qualified chemist. At trial a defendant may challenge the qualifications of the prosecution expert, or the reliability of the particular tests used, or may introduce the contrary opinion of his own expert witness. But often challenging the evidence of "possession" offers a better chance. In many cases, the police discover illegal drugs, not in the actual possession of the defendant (in his hand or in his pocket), but rather in his car, or in his room, or somewhere close to him. Besides actual possession, the law recognizes "contructive possession," which is essentially the ability to exercise "dominion and control" over the substance. Every surrounding circumstance may shed light upon the question of whether a defendant constructively possessed a substance. Very often, the most damaging evidence of possession is police testimony that a defendant said or did something indicating that he had control over the illegal substance.
If you have reason to fear the police have discovered, or are about to discover, a controlled substance anywhere near you, it is almost certainly a mistake to say anything even remotely related to such discovery. Stay calm. Keep still. Say nothing and do nothing to suggest you have any knowledge at all about any controlled substance. Say nothing and do nothing which might suggest that you have any connection at all to the substance. Any gesture, any movement of hand, head, or eye, could be used as evidence against you.