Busted Letter #120 – Two Ounces In My Shorts

It was a chilly December night down in Texas last year. A group of my friends gathered at a friend’s house for a party in Helotes – a small city on the outskirts of San Antonio. It’s a city in the Texas Hill Country full of nice houses, cool people and, unfortunately, hard ass cops. We arrive at the party, get the keg tapped, and begin the night. We thought it would be a good idea to get a bonfire going back in the woods behind the house, since the guy throwing the party owned the land and didn’t want all those people in his house.

After a couple beers and a few bowls, me and a small group of some of my close friends decide to drive down to the gas station to pick up some blunts – a perfect chance for my boy to use his ID because it was after 12:00 a.m. and he had only been 18 for a few minutes. After a short drive back up to the party, we go back and look for a spot to roll up. After freezing for a couple minutes we realize the car would be the best place for us to get down to it. I grabbed my sack from my car, got the blunt and headed for my friend’s car.

After breaking up a good amount of sticky icky we were ready to roll up a fat sess. While my bro started to roll, we got rolled up on ourselves. A cop passed us up a little bit, stopped, then we were greeted by the spotlight. He walked up to the window, told us there had been some recent break ins in the area, and before one more word he spotted some bud. We had a chance to hide it, but it was on top of a DVD case which my friend spilled as he was trying to stuff it under the seat.

We exited the car and got patted down. I had the sack down my pants which he felt with his flashlight. He asked what that was between my legs, and I replied, "Weed." If only I had known my rights. My lawyer later informed me that I should have denied there being anything there. If I did and the cop still searched me I might have been able to have the case thrown out of court. Instead, he proceeded to pull out a fat sack of a little over two ounces out of my boxers. Then me and my bro were put into separate cars, where we sat for three hours as they searched my friend's car.

After spending five hours in a holding cell in Helotes, we were taken downtown to the San Antonio jail where we waited to see the judge. After getting $1600 bail for having over two ounces (my friend’s bail was $800 for having under one ounce) we stayed for a total of 20 hours, almost hauled off to county. We were bailed out at almost the exact same time, tired and with crazy munchies since they kept us just long enough to not feed us.

My friend was charged with a fine of $500 and had it taken off of his record. As for me, my court date kept getting reset for a few months. In April my lawyer struck a deal with the district attorney, 12 hours of community service, completion of a 10-hour drug awareness course, and a clean drug test taken on my own time, and I wouldn’t be stuck with probation. What a country. You always hear of paying off cops in Mexico and other countries, but in the United States legal system it just involves paying a lawyer. Stop prosecuting bud smokers and concentrate on something that actually hurts people.