You go on a trip to Vegas with your friends, just to have a fun weekend away. You never use any recreational drugs yourself, legal or illegal, although you do enjoy having the occasional drink. But you do know that some of the people you’re going to be spending time with have a history of drug use.
While you’re there, one of your friends asks you to hold some of their drugs for them. You are certainly not planning on using them, you did not purchase them and you never even anticipated having them in your possession. Would it be safe for you to hold that person’s drugs or would you risk arrest?
You could be charged with possession
Police care about where they find drugs and who has them at the time of that discovery. They can charge you with possession, even if you claim that the drugs are not yours.
You can even be held liable if someone leaves drugs behind in your car. Say that your friends want to do these illegal drugs and so they ask you to be the designated driver, because they know you’ll be sober. If one of your friends leaves some of the drugs in your vehicle, and they are later discovered, you may claim that they are not yours – which would be an accurate claim – but you could still face arrest for possession because you had those drugs in your car.
What can you do?
With that said, if you are arrested and charged with possession of drugs that aren’t yours, there are steps that you can take to show that the drugs belong to someone else.
Just don’t assume that there is no risk to you simply because you have never purchased drugs nor do you intend to take them. You could still be criminally charged with possession if you hold someone’s drugs or they leave them on your property. This risk means that you’ll want to research all of your defense options so that you can make informed decisions if you find yourself in a rough situation.