Drug Charges
Guelph Criminal Lawyer Drug Possession, Trafficking - Perrin Valli. Dedicated to your Defence.
If you are charged with a drug possession or trafficking charge in Guelph, Perrin Valli is a highly-skilled and experienced criminal lawyer who will work hard to make sure you have the best defence.
Charged with possession of crystal meth, fentanyl, heroin?
Trafficking? Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking?
A conviction for a drug charge, even if only simple possession, is very serious and in addition to a jail sentence, can result loss of employment and professional consequences and a life-long ban from travel to the United States and/or other immigration consequences.
You need to make sure you have a the right lawyer to assist you with your drug charges in Guelph.
Trafficking and Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking
Charges of trafficking in a drug or possession of a drug for the purpose of trafficking are treated more harshly than simple possession charges.
Trafficking is defined under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act as
(a) to sell, administer, give, transfer, transport, send or deliver the substance,
(b) to sell an authorization to obtain the substance, or
(c) to offer to do anything mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b),
People are frequently charged with trafficking where they are accused of selling drugs to an undercover police officer, or where police have observed a hand-to-hand transaction.
A charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking is an allegation that someone has possessed a drug with the intent of trafficking those drugs (or a portion of those drugs). Whether someone possessed drugs for the purpose of trafficking or for the purpose of personal consumption often turns on a question of circumstantial evidence. Evidence that is often seen as consistent with an intent to traffic in a drug can include:
Quantities of cash
weigh scales
drug packaging (including in particular unused dime bags)
weapons in close proximity to the drugs
drugs in large quantities unlikely to be consumable by the possessor in a reasonable amount of time
absence of paraphernalia consistent with personal-use such as needles or pipes.
text messages or other communications exhibiting negotiations of drug sales.
police surveillance where police have observed behaviour by the person in possession of the drugs that is consistent with drug sales (such as hand-to-hand transactions, or a series of brief stops at multiple locations)
and more.
Trafficking or possessing any drug for the purpose of trafficking usually attracts a jail sentence, even on a first conviction. Trafficking in fentanyl or possessing fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking, even in small quantities attract lengthy custodial sentences, even where the perpetrator has no prior criminal record.
Cannabis
With the 2018 Cannabis Act, and the legalization of some possession of cannabis, violations of the Cannabis Act, including for possession of cannabis in public over the legal limit, or possession of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking or distribution of Cannabis remain criminal and carry significant sentences and penalties.
Further, while the Cannabis Act legalized possession of cannabis in some circumstances, possession of Cannabis remains illegal and criminal for anyone under the age of 18 years of age (and illegal as a provincial offence under the Ontario for anyone under the age of 19).
Significant penalties remain for many cannabis-related offences, including:
Simple Possession of more than 30 grams of cannabis in a public place, s. 8 - maximum sentence of 5 years less a day in jail.
Distributing or Selling [trafficking], s. 9, s. 10 - maximum sentence of 14 years in jail.
Production of Cannabis (manufacture, cultivation, etc) from an illicit seed or cultivating mroe than 4 plants in a dwelling-house, s. 12 - maximum sentence of 14 years in jail
Under the Cannabis Act, “distribute” is defined as “administering, giving, transferring, transporting, sending, delivering, providing or otherwise making available in any manner, whether directly or indirectly, and offering to distribute.”