Maryland Drug Arrests
A drug charge can impact your reputation, lead to jail time and fines, affect employment and career opportunities, and may lead to loss of professional licenses. For Maryland drug arrests, there is a certain procedure and various factors that can impact why or why not a person will be arrested. If you think you will be arrested for drug charges or have been arrested, you should consider hiring an experienced drug attorney. It can be critical to your case to work with a Maryland drug lawyer and start building your defense.
Arrest Procedure
Generally, the person is handcuffed and taken to a police station or barracks where their charges are issued. They are then brought before a commissioner who hears them on a bond review and determines if they are going to make their bond out or if they are going to release them on personal recognizance, which is a non-bond that the person may be eligible for. Then the individual could be released.
Sometimes, if the person is not released following their Maryland drug arrest, they would want a loved one to contact an attorney right away. If the person is going to have a bond review, they would want it to be done by a lawyer who knows what to say and how to say it in this situation. They want to confirm that the individual can be trusted to show up in court, make their next court case, and not disappear.
The Maryland drug arrests procedure can vary because they may or may not hold the person. If not, that gives the person’s attorney more time to continue to work with them on their case and not have to visit their client in jail.
Bond Hearing Considerations
If they believe that at the date of the incident, the person is not worthy of being trusted to be released, they do not have to release them. For instance, if the person is not released due to the drug, the amount, or some priors, they go in front of a judge where they would have a bond hearing.
Someone would want an attorney present for that. Even if it is a public defender at the time, they should make sure that they have someone representing them who knows what to say, because a person can say something very bad that affects the case going forward.
All these things are recorded. Everything a person says in court is always recorded. People have the tendency to forget that and will turn down an attorney at the bond hearing, at which time they say something that helps the state prosecute them. When a person is in a courtroom, they need to remember they are being recorded the entire time.
Aggravating Factors
The type of drug does affect the arrest. Generally, cases involving marijuana are prosecuted much lighter. Other drugs such as heroin and cocaine are not given the same benefit.
If there are any accusations of weapons, it will move the process of a Maryland drug arrest along very quickly. They are very sensitive to the fact that there is the possibility that weapons may be involved. If these are individuals that they have dealt with before, it will get the attention of law enforcement, as well.
If law enforcement has been doing this type of observation for a long time and believe that they have come across what would be a big deal and a substantive amount is going to be seized, they are going to act as quickly as they can. If they have been watching a person for a while and they know there is something common, they are going to pay closer attention in enacting a drug arrest in Maryland.