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The most common charge we see is Unlawful Possession of Marijuana (UPM - Penal Law 221.05) for possession of less than 25 grams (about 7/8 of an ounce) of marijuana. This is a violation - it is not a crime. While the law does allow for jail time, you usually will pay a fine of $100 plus a surcharge of another $100. Our fee for simple UPM cases is $1000. In most of these cases we will be able to get you an "ACOD". The ACOD is a dismissal (usually after 6 months of you staying out of trouble). Under New York law, a marijuana ACOD wipes the slate clean, as if you were never arrested. This is very important for college financial aid, and for many other reasons. Some judges will require community service as a part of the ACOD.  We disagree with this requirement, but it is usually in our client's interest to do it rather than fight that issue.

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Also common is Criminal Possession of Marijuana in the fifth degree (CPM - Penal Law 221.10) for possession in a public place where the marijuana is either burning or open to public view, or where the amount is more than 25 grams but less than 2 ounces. This is a crime - a B misdemeanor. CPM 4th (221.15) is where the amount of marijuana (including everything it’s mixed with) is more than 2 ounces but less than 8 ounces. this is an A misdemeanor. This is where marijuana offenses start to become more serious, with consequences like probation and jail time becoming more likely. Our fee on misdemeanor CPM cases is $1000 to negotiate a deal, and $3000 to make a motion and go through a hearing if necessary. For some of the simpler CPM misdemeanor cases we can make a motion for an ACOD, and our fee for that is lower, at $2000. These fees include motions and hearings, but not trials.

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Fortunately, it seems that relatively few of the marijuana cases we see rise to the felony level. In some of these cases the original felony will be dropped to a misdemeanor if the lab weight is less than 8 ounces. For felony cases, our fee is at least $5000 up front, and this covers through a motion and hearing, but does not include trial fees.

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How long the THC will stay in a person's system and be detectable by a urine test depends on many different factors. How frequent the person ingests marijuana, how sensitive the test is, and the recency of the consumption all come into play. Recent scientific studies in the area have revealed that the smoking of a single marijuana cigarette can stay in a person's system from one to sometimes three days. Other studies have shown that heavy smokers of marijuana (daily use for six months or more) can show positive for THC in their urine for up to two months after the last consumption.

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To combat this problem the police, in recent years, have began implementing DRE programs. DRE stands for "Drug Recognition Examination" the process involves a multi step approach of field evaluation. The object of the DRE is to detect and identify specific drug impairment of the driver arrested for a DUI. Marijuana and other drugs are purported to be detectable using the process. However, the examination is not as accurate as the police claim and the DRE is often not performed in the correct manner. The DRE evaluation takes about 30 to 40 minutes to perform correctly. Although some Courts have ruled the procedure admissible in a criminal prosecution, many attorneys and legal scholars have argued the contrary.