Walk It Through: The Call
An overdose, an empty pipe, a lab report, a trafficking charge, and a smell that may no longer be enough.
A friend stops responding on the couch. There is a bag on the table.
The remaining conditions and exclusions on the overdose immunity, the current degrees for paraphernalia after the marijuana overhaul, the full trafficking tables for every schedule and the schedules themselves, and the odor question once the Ohio Supreme Court decides it are not reproduced here. The quick reference this draws on describes the general scheme, and an individual offence statute can override it.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Bulk amountA quantity defined per substance in the definitions section, which the possession and trafficking tables then use as their unit. Multiples of it set the degree.
- ConsentVoluntary agreement to a search, judged on the totality of the circumstances. Valid consent removes the need for a warrant and for probable cause.
- ForfeitureThe state going to court to keep seized property permanently. It is a separate proceeding from the criminal case, with its own filings, its own standard of proof, and its own deadlines.
- InstrumentalityProperty that is lawful to own, used in or intended to be used in an offence. The statutory list includes a firearm, a vehicle, a computer, a telecommunications device, and money.
- Intervention in lieu of convictionA statutory route where a court may stay the case and order treatment for an eligible defendant whose offence was related to a substance use disorder. Successful completion results in dismissal.
- Major drug offenderA specification attaching at the highest quantity tier of a drug offence. Where it applies, the court is required to impose the maximum term for the degree.
- Minor drug possession offenceA violation of the possession section that is a misdemeanour or a fifth degree felony. The phrase is the boundary of the overdose immunity, which reaches this and nothing heavier.
- Plain feelDuring a lawful weapons frisk, an object whose identity as contraband is immediately apparent from the pat itself may be seized. The knowledge has to come from the lawful pat, not from manipulating the object.
- Qualified individualThe person the overdose immunity protects. It covers three people: somebody acting in good faith who seeks help for another person overdosing, somebody who overdoses and seeks help for themselves, and somebody who is the subject of another person's call.
- The mission of the stopThe tasks that address the reason for the stop and attend to related safety concerns. A stop may last no longer than it takes to complete them, and adding unrelated investigation beyond that point is a separate seizure requiring its own justification.
- Unit doseA single measured quantity as prepared for use. For some substances the tables run on doses as an alternative to weight, and whichever tier is reached first applies.