A drug trafficking charge on your record can change your life, not for the better, obviously. If you get declared guilty at court, it leads to imprisonment, financial penalty, and further restrictions and limitations on employment, immigration, higher studies, and more.
In recent years, drug trafficking in Canada has been a notorious issue. However, not all charges are accurate, justified, and lawful. It’s mandatory that you get the charges dropped as soon as possible if what you’re charged with is, in fact, fabricated and unlawful.
Following is a discussion on how you can get drug trafficking charges dropped as a citizen of Canada.
Understanding Drug Trafficking
Drug trafficking is often confused with possession of drugs. These two are not the same. Possession of drugs refers to simply owning or carrying illicit substances on one’s person.
Drug trafficking, on the other hand, refers to possessing or carrying illicit substances to sell them. The accusation and consequences of drug trafficking are much more severe than possession.
In most provinces, the penalties of drug trafficking include years of jail, hundreds and thousands of dollars in fines, and these consequences tend to worsen with each subsequent conviction. Also, having such a charge in your record can cause severe complications for you even years later.
Hence, it’s smart to have the drug trafficking charges dropped. It might often appear as though you are completely helpless. That’s not always true. Being a citizen of Canada entitles you to some civil rights, and you do have several options and courses of action.
Getting the Drug Trafficking Charges Dropped from Your Records
Making your way out of drug trafficking charges might seem impossible at times. In reality, it may be complicated, but it’s not entirely impossible. Following are some lawful justifiable methods of having drug trafficking charges dropped from your records:
Proving Invalid Accusation
You can divert the charges to a much simpler one of possession if you can cast doubt on the fact or prove that you never really intended to distribute or sell the drugs in your possession; you might just be able to avoid conviction.
You can also persuade the prosecution for evidence of your intent. If there is no evidence for any reason, then it can be proven beyond any reasonable doubt that trafficking was not established.
For this to work, the police would first have to establish that there were drugs in your possession. You can escape conviction by proving the drugs were not yours.
If you can provide evidence of the drugs belonging to someone else, even in a case where you have to admit knowing about the illegal substances, it will be significantly difficult for the prosecution to prove your intent to sell the drugs.
Another way to avoid conviction and get charges dropped would be proving there was a lab error and that there were no drugs, to begin with. This would again require pressing prosecution for evidence. If there is no sound evidence indicating the objects on you were, in fact, drugs, the charges can be dropped.
On the other hand, the original evidence might have been tampered with or destroyed during testing, which would make the charges invalid and lead to dismissal due to lack of evidence.
Proving Violation of Rights
If none of the methods mentioned above worked, they still can’t charge you if the evidence used was illegally obtained. If it can be proven that the evidence was planted by law enforcement or there was no search warrant and the search was, in fact, illegal, the charges would be dismissed due to corruption or incompetence.
Fake evidence, violence, and improper procedure are also considered acts of corruption. Another method would be establishing yourself as a victim of entrapment. It means the police coerced you into committing the crime you are accused of, which is out of your natural actions.
You can also avoid the charges if it’s established that they did not read you your rights while arresting you. The police are legally obligated to inform and read you of the various rights.
Before getting your rights read, whatever you say would be considered invalid in court. Even if what you said was a piece of crucial information or evidence, it will be dropped from the record. This can get your charges dismissed.
Making Deals
Remember that it is not in the court’s best interest to impose the hardest possible punishment. They might be chasing a “bigger target.” You might be able to make a plea deal providing information and trade your trafficking charges with something less severe.
Suppose you have any knowledge or information about any other organizations or individuals related to the production or distribution of drugs. In that case, you might be able to trade that with having your charges dropped. It is often an option for a drug user to get treatment for addiction as an alternative.
This type of arrangement is called deferred prosecution or diversion, where you agree to enter a treatment program to get the charges dropped. However, you need to agree to the terms of both the judge and the prosecution for any of the above to work.
Final Words
Even though it’s a severe charge and offence, you can actually avoid such charges. If you cannot get the charges dropped by proving corruption or mistake, you might be able to work out a deal by cooperating.
Most importantly, consider consulting with your lawyer before making such decisions to understand the implications better. Hopefully, this entire discussion has provided a clear understanding of the process of getting drug trafficking charges dropped.
In the end, what matters is your freedom. You shouldn’t get involved in such criminal activity. If you still somehow end up getting accused of this, all these options are there to help you out of the situation.
