Being charged with a crime can make life complicated. Many people in North Carolina face consequences in their personal lives — such as losing their jobs or driving privileges — even before stepping foot in court. Understanding the basics of their charges can be helpful, especially when it comes to allegations that not everyone is familiar with, like drug manufacturing.
Most people have heard of charges for possessing or selling drugs, but manufacturing drugs can also lead to an arrest. There are multiple elements to a drug manufacturing charge. These are possession and intent to manufacture.When seeking a conviction, a prosecutor has to show that both elements are present. Otherwise, securing that conviction should not be easy.
Possession refers to actually having the supplies to make certain drugs. For example, having something like marijuana seeds or the banned cold medicine pseudoephedrine is not really enough to satisfy both the possession and the intent elements. Those elements might be met if a person also had additional items such as certain laboratory equipment, hydroponic supplies or indoor grow lamps.
Simply possessing marijuana seeds is not really enough to justify a drug manufacturing charge, and neither is having indoor growing equipment without any plants or seeds. Unfortunately, this will not stop law enforcement officials in North Carolina from making arrests anyway. This is one of the reasons that it is so important for defendants to familiarize themselves with all of their charges and related evidence. In most situations, it is also helpful to talk with an experienced attorney about options for moving forward.
