Are there different levels of drug possession?
Drug possession comes in a couple of different forms. You can just literally possess the drug on your person; in your car; in your home. That’s one level of a drug offense, and it’s usually considered the lowest level. The next level is an intent to distribute; distributing or manufacturing. That takes it to a whole nother level – higher mandatory minimums, higher fines – things like that. How that changes is it could be literally you sharing –someone sharing – their controlled substances with somebody else. You share cocaine. That is distributing, technically.
The other thing – there are factors that help the police officers charge you with intent to distribute. You may have a tiny, tiny bit of marijuana, but you may have other factors –someone may have other factors there. A weight– a scales; money; baggies. Things of that nature help the police officers, or signal to the police officers, that someone may not be using the drugs for their personal use.