Marijuana Possession Cases in Rockwall, Texas

If you are reading this you probably facing a marijuana case in Rockwall. You aren’t in Dallas anymore Dorothy, when you crossed that county line you actually go back in time 30 years to a time when pot cases mattered. Which means instead of an easy memo agreement (2-month dismissal) you are looking at the possibility of real probation for a bullshit pot case.

What’s that mean? Let’s get started.

First of all possession of any usable quantity of weed (enough to take a hit on basically) is a class B misdemeanor (up to 6 months in jail!). It’s not a traffic ticket, it’s a real crime, the kind you can go to jail on. Which is one reason you need to start voting, this is ridiculous, other states have repealed their idiotic pot laws and Texas won’t until we get better politicians in office, so vote.

Now on to pot cases, in bigger counties like Dallas pot cases are much easier to get dismissed without real probation, we call these programs pre-trial diversion, or memo agreements. Dallas has a great program which is pretty short and simple, but you aren’t in Dallas. You are in Rockwall. Dallas has a lot of real crime to focus on, so they have an incentive to move meaningless pot cases. Rockwall, not so much. So to make sure that lawyers like myself have to keep litigating this nonsense Rockwall has a rule that people over 21 should not get a pre-trial diversion agreement on simple pot cases. I’m not sure why, but other small counties have official age-discrimination policies for weed cases and make it worse for older adults. I think the ideas is young people deserve a break, because they are young. But to be eligible for a memo/pre-trial diversion agreement you need to have a clean criminal history, which means that but for a stupid pot charge you are a solid citizen. Those are the people who shouldn’t be in the system anyway, but if they are, for weed, we should cut them a break regardless of age.

So what can you do?

First of all, if you like to get high don’t live or shop or think about Rockwall. Just don’t go there, literally. Second, don’t let your car smell like weird. Seriously, that’s 90% of the pot arrests I see. Having a car smell like weed means the cops can search without your consent. Speaking of consent, never, as in never ever for any reason never consent to a search of your car. The police only want to search your car if they think you are a criminal. When they ask to search that is a sign they really want to arrest you, so don’t play along. Politely decline, ask for a lawyer, and quit answering questions. If the police find pot don’t talk about it. I don’t care if they pull it out of your pants just shut up and say you want a lawyer. If you do that, maybe I’ll have something to work with, maybe not, but it gives us a chance to hold the police accountable for the stop and search etc.

What else can you do?

Hire a lawyer. I’m shocked at how many people just walk into to county court and plead guilty. You have no idea what you are doing, what your options are, or what you need to do to defend the case. Don’t be a sucker, hire an attorney.