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Originally posted by OpinionatedB
I met a young woman a while back who had been pulled over while driving and she consented to a search. While searching her purse they found 3 oxycontin loose in her purse. Her version ( I admittedly do not know the states version) was that she had a prescription for them but did not have the bottle with her, she thinks they must have fallen into her purse from the bottle at some point without her realizing it. She said she was arrested for 3 counts of possession of a controlled substance and that she could not afford an attorney so she got a public defender. She claims to have had proof that she had a prescription for the medicine but her attorney and the state prosecutor seemed not to think this was important.
She was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and spent most of it there because she would not "admit" to being a drug addict or having a drug problem, therefore, no parole. She is a nice girl and doesn't do drugs, she is an upstanding person, intelligent in every way.... not like any addict I have ever heard of. But her life was ruined over having a few loose pills in her purse.
To me, whether or not she had a prescription would not make any difference, it just doesn't seem to fit the punishment.... who does that much time for having 3 pills? This is a manslaughter sentence not a 3 pill sentence in my mind!
I do not agree with illicit drug use, and have no understanding of people who use drugs in order to get "high" but at the same time I don't think that most are as criminal as one who would commit murder. I just saw the mandatory minimum for possession of a controlled substance in Rhode Island that that said 10 years with LIFETIME probation.... that seems more than just a little extreme for a user! These are not dealers....