Is a twig a drug?

We live in southern California. My 18-yr-old son was supposedly pulled over for illegal tint on his windows (I think it was racial profiling, actually). The tint is legal. So the cop asked to search the car and, wanting to cooperate, my son agreed. The cop found a small twig under the driver seat and gave my son a ticket for marijuana possession. He then told my son he could either submit to a field sobriety test (I thought these didn't exist for marijuana) or leave his car and come back for it 4 hours later. He elected to come back later. Should we pay a lawyer $1500 to help us, or is this something we can fight easily ourselves? I don't want my son to lose his license for 6 months or have this on his record. Would his juvenile record affect the outcome of this? Thank you for your time.

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

The juvenile record shouldn't affect the outcome.

A twig? I thought marijuana was a leaf? -- no twig unless cop meant a stem or something. I wouldn't fight this on your own. 1500 might be a little much though. Have you tried going through either http://www.attorneypages.com or calling the california state bar association (los angeles) to see if you can find a lower priced attorney?

To be convicted of possession of marijuana in Arizona the marijuana has to be a usable quantity and quality, I would expect that the law is similar in California. My advise to you look in West's, Pacific Digest, you can find this set of books in any public law library. Look up the term "usable quantity" I would expect that you will find a case that indicates what a usable quantity of Marijuana is in California. If a usable quantity is not a twig your son can not be convicted of possession of marijuana. As far as the windows not being properly tinted, this goes to probable cause, if there was no probable cause to pull over your son, ultimately the marijuana will be supressed. The supression issue is of no matter if your son was not in possession of a usable quantity of marijuana. Pull the case from the law library. Give it to your son's public defender, if the public defender can not help your son you may want to contact a private attorney to see if he or she can perhaps obtain a better result. $1,500 is not a lot of money for a case such as this.

[Edited by Mark Lazell on 01-01-2001 at 06:52 PM]

Actually 1500 is a lot of money for a case such as this: pretty simple case to get dismissed with the right attorney. Getting the research done on your own is a good idea if you know what you are looking for and what to interpret.

Public defenders in southern cali really don't help mark because if you dont already know, they have one attorney who handles merely prelim hearings and another for arraignment and for trial. They DONT know the law, dont have time to RESEARCH THE LAW or READ THE LAW. Because of prop 115, they bind over for any little thing. This is based on personal experience (me helping out some friends).