Some Texas Tech students are buying marijuana in Colorado and other states where it is legal and then getting arrested for possession after bringing it back to Texas.
Jill S. Stangl, managing director of Tech’s Student Legal Services, said she’s dealt with cases where Tech students purchase marijuana or edibles in Colorado and travel back to Texas with them, because they are not aware that it’s illegal to do so.
“And so they come back with it and there’s a high concentration of THC in those items, so it’s not just regular marijuana possession.”
Stangl is referring to edibles, such as brownies, with high amounts of THC concentration. The weight of the entire edibles is used for possession purposes, not just the THC, so the penalties can be much greater, turning a misdemeanor into a felony.
“Anyhow, I’m seeing more and more of those cases and so I think students just need to be warned that just because it’s legal in Colorado, it is not legal in Texas. We do not recognize even the medical use of marijuana and it doesn’t matter that you legally purchase it in one state, you’re bringing it into Texas and possession in Texas is illegal.
Jill Stangl Managing Director/Attorney at Law
“And so I saw some cases after spring break of students coming back to Texas with marijuana, and they weren’t stopped in Lubbock, they were stopped in other counties and so they had to deal with the expense of hiring an attorney in the other county, travelling back and forth. It’s a very expensive charge, potentially if you get charged with marijuana. Lubbock County has one way of dealing with it but not every county is going to do that.”
“Students need to remember, while the trend might be in other parts of the country for legalization, it is not happening here and as of right now, it’s still illegal, and so that’s the message I’m trying to get out is for them to think before they try to travel and bring it back to Texas.”
Stangl said she thinks the number of people who try to bring marijuana from Colorado will increase in general, not just for Tech students or college students.
Stangl says her area of expertise is criminal defense and when she does deal with drug cases, it’s usually marijuana possession. If a student is involved with an incident that happens off campus, then she can represent them in cases dealing with marijuana charges.
“On campus,” Stangl said, “I have to refer them to a private attorney. They’ll need to hire somebody because it’s a conflict of interest for me to represent students when Texas Tech is involved. So, if it happened on-campus, then you can assume that the Texas Tech police would be involved and potentially housing, if it was in a residence hall, things like that. So, I’m not allowed to take cases if the incident was on campus.”
Stangl said she’ll ask the student questions and determine whether or not she can represent them in court. If she can’t represent them, she’ll refer them to a private attorney. However, if she’s able to represent them then she could call the DA’s office and see if the matter can be settled.
“The majority of criminal cases don’t go to trial,” Stangl said, “they get worked out with some sort of plea agreement, particularly with marijuana. If the student has never been in trouble before, we may have an opportunity to resolve the case through kind of an alternative program where the case won’t get filed against them. They’ll have an opportunity — whether to do a bunch of community service or complete some classes to try to resolve the case that way.”
Stangl said if the student does not have a prior criminal conviction, they can get into an alternative resolution called an exchange program.
Stangl’s shelf contains books about law in her office.
Personal Development Seminars, a company in McQueeney, Texas, administers the exchange program to dispose of cases that deal with non-violent, first-time offenders. It’s a way to dispose of non-violent, misdemeanor cases without permanently affecting a first-time offender’s records.
“From my experience,” Stangl said, “the majority of the time, the exchange program is what the resolution would be because I meet with students and so, for most of them, it’s their first interaction with the criminal justice system and they don’t have prior (criminal convictions) and so they’re eligible for this other opportunity.”
The exchange program doesn’t deal with crimes of moral turpitude, which involves dishonesty, like theft, Stangl said.
Stangl said Lubbock County benefits from the exchange program as well.
“It’s cheaper for the county to utilize this method and it also gives the defendant kind of a second chance so that they don’t have something following them around permanently on their record.”
“We’re not in control of who the county contracts with. We’re just lucky that we have this opportunity for Lubbock county cases.”
The exchange program entails hours of community service and taking a day-long class.
“It still costs the student money and time,” Stangl said, “but it’s an opportunity for them to not be formally charged and it’s an opportunity for the county to not go through the expense of pressing charges against the defendant and going through the process of, you know, resolving the case that way.”
Stangl says she’s seen Tech students succeed under the exchange porogram. However, due to the lawyer-client privilege she can not talk about specific students.
“But the students I have seen,” Stangl said, “in the 90 percent range are successful with completing the program. They take advantage of the opportunity because they realize it’s a good opportunity.”
The following spreadsheet shows differences in marijuana laws and penalties among Texas and several neighboring states: Marijuana_Excel_1-2
Patrick Metze, professor of law at Texas Tech University’s law school, says legislatures will classify drugs, like marijuana, as different types of drugs.
“If you take marijuana for example,” Metze said, “until, I think the 1930s, marijuana was still just a weed that grew out on the farm, and people would smoke marijuana, and there began a move during the thirties, during prohibition, to try to criminalize it.”
Metze, director of the criminal clinics at the law school, recalled that in the early 1970s, legislatures began attempts to decriminalize marijuana in order to make the offenses less serious.
Patrick Metze – Professor at Texas Tech University Law School
“Until today,” Metze said, “when you have two states, and maybe more that, pretty much have decriminalized marijuana, and they base the seriousness of the crime based upon the amount in your possession or the amount that you sell.”
“And so, the more you possess, the amount that you sell, the more serious the crime, and with marijuana, to get it up to a really serious crime, you’ve got to have a lot of it.”
Marijuana is classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin, LSD and methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or ecstasy as it’s commonly called.
Per the DEA’s website, Schedule 1 drugs are identified as having a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use. Furthermore, Schedule 1 drugs can involve severe psychological or physical dependence.
Via email, Metze said chemists make synthetic marijuana which isn’t really marijuana at all, it’s just the name given to it. Also, Metze added that the synthetic marijuana movement came out of those who started to smoke bath salts.
Metze said he is not aware that people lace marijuana with other chemical, but legislators are having a hard time trying to control synthetic marijuana.
“And so, they’re struggling right now in the state and federal level, trying to control that, for some reason, and they’re all freaked out about it and they’re constantly changing the law, and they’re making it more and more difficult.”
“I mean some cities outlaw it because the states don’t. Certain kinds of things that outlaw it, but they change the chemical make-up of it so easy that suddenly it’s not illegal anymore.”
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