Legal Question Involving Firearms & Drugs

[typevx]

I am considering moving into my buddies place and being his roomate.. one concern is he smokes weed, which doesn't bother me at all I'm just concerned if he ever got busted and the police came out to the house, would they steal all my guns even though I'm not involved in the weed smokin?

sidenote: all firearms would be kept in my room.

Thanks guys

 

[retgarr]

that sounds like a grade A bad idea. I'm guessing your guns would be gone.

 

[1 old 0311]

YOUR guns, and HIS weed would be shown on the news.

 

[goalie]

The fact that you are even asking the question pretty much tells me that you already know it is a very bad idea.

And, yes, they would likely take your guns, and it would be a PITA to get them back.

 

[righteousbarbarian]

it's a real shame about cannabis prohibition. it is truly ridiculous.

i don't know if it makes a difference but will you be on separate leases?

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

good be the least of your worries we had a nice young man here shot and killed as a result of his roomies activities

 

[typevx]

hmm this is a tasty burger

righteousbarbarian, I agree it is a shame I believe what people do in their homes is their own business, UNLESS it is hurting someone else (i.e. spousal abuse etc) But I think if a tax paying citizen wants to smoke a joint after work they should be able to.

but no I wouldn't be on the lease... he owns the house he just needs a roomate and would be willing to let me move in for super cheap (like $200-300a month, and it's a 3br/2ba house WITH a porch )

Thanks to all for the responses so far, I need a LE officer to ask, but I can't just go to the sheriffs office and say "uh, my friend smokes weed..."

more responses please

 

[PotatoJudge]

Don't ask LE for legal advice. At best they try to be helpful, but they're not lawyers and don't know the law like you need them to. Really though, you don't even need a lawyer for this one. Just don't do it.

Even if you store the guns off site, it's going to be a bad scene. A bit of weed opens one up to some unsavory characters in addition to the legal problems you may encounter.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

The world is imperfect and I personally have no problem with people using canabis if they are adults.

That said, and as said, NOT a good idea--especially if your room does not constitute a lawfully separate residence.

A lot depends on the political climate where you live--but STILL not a good idea.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

"A bit of weed opens one up to some unsavory characters in addition to the legal problems you may encounter."

bingo! the young man killed didn't get high nor his roomie roomie just sold a lil for a sideline. interesting enough had 35 years of probation time over his head

 

[Dksimon]

I agree that it is a bad idea regardless of wether you have firearms in the house or not.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

A bit of weed opens one up to some unsavory characters in addition to the legal problems you may encounter.

These characters are my biggest worry. Your bud (pun intended) has to get the stuff from somewhere. And, is he dealing in and/or growing the pot? (Not saying he is, but it does happen.) That, coupled with word getting out about firearms in the home, will make both of you a target for a ripoff.

 

[schadenfreude]

My 2 cents

In my State, possession of an ounce or less is a misdemeanor and a $500 fine. Ticket able offense. They usually only confiscate firearms and I stress usually in the case of growing and trafficking or if the firearms weren't legal, i.e. stolen, BATF violations etc.... I see a lot of people saying that your guns will be gone but possession doesn't really work like that.

1. The ways that your rooms can get caught is driving under the influence, wont have anything to do with his house or roommate unless they find a felony amount and have probable cause to thing growing and trafficking is involved.

2. A neighbor smells it and calls the police. The police do a "knock and talk" and try to determine if they can get him to admit that he has it and they can come in based on that or if they smell it. Either way it's possession and why would that be subject to your firearms if you can prove they are yours and legal.

3. Former lover or roommate snitches him out, see above.

The risk is low for you depending on your state or city laws which you can find out at norml.org


There are a lot of cannabis related forums and you could find a lot of answers. I've read tons of stories about possession busts stemming from a loud party and the like and have never heard of a single thing confiscated other than paraphernalia. Plus in 19 years of watching COPS on TV I've never seen it happen

I had to learn a ton about this and ALL the laws for my state because I had to help a very old, very sick person learn to cultivate under my states medical marijuana act. I don't use but I have the utmost compassion for those that need to.

 

[Sage of Seattle]

I don't use but I have the utmost compassion for those that need to.

I think you got the wrong screen name in that case!

A thing to consider is to make certain that both of those items (your guns and his weed) are separately locked up, with no access between your things. If you don't have access to his room (lock on the bedroom door that's actually kept locked at all times) and he yours, then that will help in establishing that you had no control over those substances and therefore could not be considered to have constructive possession (and vice versa).

Again, IANAL, but I think often people get busted all the time by holding constructive possession over drugs. Cops don't care whose drugs they are, just as long as someone is going to jail for it.

That may help, then again it may not. I hope it gives you something more to think about. As far as personally, as long as the potential rooommate works and can pay his bills, I really wouldn't care less what he ingests. Well, I would care if it were coke or heroin, but for maryjane? Nope, don't care.

 

[schadenfreude]

I think you got the wrong screen name in that case!

I picked this name about 5 years ago when I joined........... I have done A LOT of growing up since then. Maybe I should start over lol....

 

[typevx]

schadenfreude, thanks for the insight (hunter S. Thompson all the way )
sage, totally right on.. I think he should be able to ingest whatever he wants and it should have nothing to do with me and ditto on the locked doors.... I think I'll do some reading on norml.com

 

[romma]

In an ideal world, you should be able to do that.

This is far from an ideal world...

I wouldn't.

 

[typevx]

nice quote... v for vendetta-ish

 

[Kaeto]

Problem is if he gets arrested for possession the house and all contents could be seized for forfeiture.

 

[Jeff White]

If you hang with people who live a criminal lifestyle, don't be surprised if you get caught up in it. I'm not saying that smoking weed is bad, but it is illegal.

Say your friend sells a little extra to a buddy couldn't find his connection. The buddy gets stopped an hour later for a burned out tail light and the officer smells the odor because he was toking up while cruising around, or a K9 hits on the car and it's found in the search.

The buddy meets with the local narc at the pd and finds out he can make it all go away if he rolls over on where he got it. So he rolls over on your room mate. A couple hours later he's telling his story to a judge who signs a warrant. An hour after that the warrant is served. You are going to have a very hard time distancing yourself from your room mate.

You will most likely be arrested and charged along with your room mate, and you'll be out a lot of money to clear your name, if you even can.

If you want to live a safe and relatively trouble free life, don't live a criminal lifestyle or hang with those who do.

Jeff

 

[pyle]

Bad idea - wouldn't do it. Too many things that can go wrong - not enough "upside" for you. I like to keep situations under my control (as much as possible) and this situation has too many "things" that could go wrong.

 

[PotatoJudge]

typevx, since you're new I'll point out that Jeff White just gave you the LE advice you're looking for.

 

[Futuristic]

It's been said by numerous folks, though John Farnam or Clint Smith get the credit most often:

Don't go stupid places. Don't hang out with stupid people. Don't do stupid things.

Sage advice for living a trouble free life.

And, for those who advocate the legalization of cannabis, I would submit that, sure, that might be a noble goal. It might even be the right thing to do. But, it isn't the law YET. In the meantime, you can rant and rave (just like the NFA guys who wonder why we can't save our outdoor ranges by having simple silencers to eliminate the noise complaints...) but the law is the law until it changes. And, I define routinely defying the law as Stupid. Unless you are the next Gandhi, in which case, go for it.

Futuristic

 

[vis-à-vis]

I had a roommate who hid a cocaine habit from us about a year and a half ago now. I ended up booting him partially for fear of what the OP brings up [mostly I didn't want to get evicted and he was having real problems], but I did call the local PD and spoke with the Officer in Charge for the shift. He said in situations like that where there are multiple lease holders and everyone had their own rooms, only the man in actual possession could be charged with a crime.

I'd be less concerned about marijuana, however. Make sure your roommate, for his benefit and your own, keeps it under the felony level in terms of weight. In KY I can have up to an ounce before they consider me the greatest scum that ever walked the bluegrass.

I wonder how many here smoke doobie?

 

[nicki]

Pot and guns

Generally guns and drugs are a bad idea. That being said, things are very different depending where in the country you are.

In Oregon a sheriff was told that he had to issue a ccw pernit to someone who had a mdeical marijuania card in spite of the sheriff complaining that the card holder was violating federal laws on marijuaina.

There have been reported cases of people defending their medical marijuania crops in Northern California.

The former sheriff of Mendocino county would allow people to keep 2 punds of pot for medical use and transport 8 ounces. I believe the new sheriff may be continuing the policy, prior sheriff was very popular.

He also was one of the few sheriffs in Califorina who ran the CCW system on a shall issue basis and openly encouraged people to apply.

From a historical point, the Pot Laws and Federal Gun Laws are both examples of abuse of re interpretation of the "commerce clause" to allow the Feds to control every aspect of our lives by claiming everything we do is some form of "Interstate Commerce".

Perhaps if NORML(National Organization to Reform Marijuania Laws) and gun groups would set aside differences and work together to fix this abuse of federal authority, alot of bad policies on many issues could be fixed.

Nicki