Richmond Campus Drug Offense Lawyer
When a young person goes away for college, it is expected that they should be expected to certain things that may lead them to trouble. Although you trust your child to do the right thing when caught in such a decision, some are pressured into doing things they are not entirely eager to do. This is especially prevalent in drug cases involving serious consequences.
If your child is facing serious repercussions as a result of a drug-related offense while attending a university, it is strongly recommended that you get in touch with a dedicated student defense attorney today. With a Richmond campus drug offense lawyer, you may be able to provide your child with the resources necessary to avoid the penalties that comes with a drug charge.
Consequences of a Substance-Related Charge on a College Campus
If someone is a student charged with possessing marijuana, that is going to be a Class 1 misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail and a fine of $2,500. On a first offense, it carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a fine of $500 for a simple possession.
However, the penalties are much more severe for drugs of a higher schedule. In Richmond, drugs can be classified as a schedule one through six. Scheduled one drugs are some of the more serious drugs that have high potential for abuse and are not used for medical use or treatment. A person convicted of this offense could be facing 10 years in jail, with the added humiliation of having a felony on their record. The penalties decrease as the list of schedule drugs goes up, however, if there is evidence that the person was planning to distribute or has already been caught distributing, the penalties could be aggravated.
How Does a Case Change Depending on the Student’s Age?
Consequences change based on a student’s age. As far as drug possession is related, the biggest change is whether the student being charged is a minor. The consequences for the student as far as the university is concerned generally do not change based on age. Whatever the consequences are from the university, those consequences are going to be the same if they are 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21.
The consequences can change if they are a minor as far as the State is concerned, because the Virginia Code and all the applicable statutes mostly apply to those charged as adults.
The city of Richmond and the state of Virginia operate differently when dealing with minors. If someone is a minor, they are going to have more opportunities to have the charges against them dismissed based off of either probation or some kind of an agreement with the Commonwealth that would not be applicable to them if they were of the age of majority.
Are Drug Offenses More Serious than Drinking-Related Offenses
For adult students, drug offenses are usually considered more serious than alcohol-based offenses at the university level outside of a DUI. This is because when dealing with alcohol-based offenses, the biggest public policy concern is making sure that the students are safe. At the university level, alcohol offenses and drug offenses are treated with much the same level of severity. The more serious the accusation, the more serious they treat it, whether it involves alcohol or drugs.
They will look at the specifics around the offense and adjudicate it according to how they see fit based on those specific factors. Whereas at the state level, drug offenses are usually treated more seriously than alcohol-based offenses because drug crimes are codified with harsher penalties than alcohol-based offenses with no exceptions.
Drug convictions at the state level would also have a greater and graver effect on the student at the university level because a drug offense and a finding of guilty at the state level would lead to dismissal from the university. An alcohol-based offense at the state level is not necessarily going to automatically lead to a dismissal from the university.
Benefits of Hiring a Richmond Campus Drug Offense Attorney
The beautiful thing about campus police is that they do count as a state entity, and since they count as a state entity, an individual is offered the liberties and the constitutional protections that are available to them. If there are any constitutional violations, you can challenge them, and they can help you prepare for your criminal proceeding or hearing.
The downside of that is that if it does not happen on campus, there will generally be on-campus proceeding as well. If there is an on-campus proceeding, then those same protections do not apply.
For more insight, get in touch with a Richmond campus drug offense lawyer today.
