St. Catharines Drug Charge Lawyer

When facing drug charges, it’s perfectly normal to feel scared and confused. However, the best thing you can do is hire an experienced criminal defence lawyer to represent you in your upcoming case. Kruse Law Firm is one of the top criminal law firms in the St. Catharines area. When you have a skilled team from the firm on your side, you are in good hands.

St. Catharines Drug Possession and Trafficking Lawyer

Drug charges can include various offences that are taken very seriously in St. Catharines and will have significant repercussions on your life. Two of the most serious criminal charges are possession of drugs and drug trafficking, which carry stiff legal penalties under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. If you are arrested on either charge, it is important to know what your rights are and how to properly defend yourself and navigate the complex Ontario criminal court system.

What is a drug charge?

A drug charge is a criminal offence that involves the possession, trafficking, importing, exporting or production of illegal drugs and controlled substances. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the case, the penalties can be very severe.

Types of drug charges

Two of the most common types of drug charges are possession of drugs and drug trafficking. Under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, if you are found to have certain prescribed drugs in your possession, you can be charged with this offence in St. Catharines. Drug trafficking is an offence that can be charged when you are found to knowingly have illegal drugs and controlled substances in your possession with the intent of selling, administering, giving, transferring, transporting, sending or delivering them. Both offences are considered by the courts to be extremely serious and there are stringent sentencing repercussions if you are convicted.

What are hard and soft drugs?

Drugs are generally described as either “hard” and “soft” and this distinction will also be reflected in the escalating severity of the sentence you will receive upon conviction.   Hard drugs include substances such as heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, morphine, opium, diazepam and secobarbital. Soft drugs include marijuana, magic mushrooms, mescaline, ecstasy and LSD.

Legal consequences

A conviction for a drug charge comes with serious legal consequences in St. Catharines. If you are convicted of possession of drugs, you could receive a sentence ranging from a discharge, fine, probation or up to a very lengthy jail term, depending on the type and quantity of the drug. For a drug trafficking conviction, you face much more serious penalties up to a maximum of life in prison for a large quantity of drugs.

The lawyers and former criminal and drug prosecutors (i.e. former assistant crown attorneys) at Kruse Law Firm have a great track record of winning their clients’ drug trials. If you have been charged with possession of a small quantity of drugs for personal use and have no prior criminal record for drug possession, we will usually be able to successfully divert your charges out of the criminal court system and convince the Crown to withdraw your charges.  For more serious drug trafficking cases, if your case is not defendable and we cannot win your case outright, we will present the mitigating facts of the offence and your personal background to the Crown and a Judge to negotiate and advocate for the lightest possible sentence.

Negative impacts of simply being charged

Unfortunately, even if you are not convicted of a drug charge, simply being charged by the police can still negatively impact your life in various ways. Your personal life can begin to suffer as people lose trust in you. Your professional life can also suffer as it can affect your job or your ability to keep it or obtain new employment and you will experience stigma in your community.

Why You Should Retain Us

If you plead guilty to a drug charge, a conviction for this type of offence will take the negative repercussions to a whole new level. For this reason, it is important to retain a skilled and experienced drug lawyer to determine if your case is winnable and to at least lessen the consequences if it is not.   Above all else, if you have been arrested on any type of drug charge, your first priority should be to immediately retain an experienced criminal defence lawyer. You want the best chances in your case, which means you should skip the idea of representing yourself and instead, hire the best drug lawyer possible.

Kruse Law is a top tier law firm in the field of criminal defence and is led by Michael Kruse. Mike has more than 30 years of experience both consistently winning criminal trials and negotiating lenient plea bargaining deals in St. Catharines.   Kruse Law Firm has a dedicated team of criminal defence lawyers who will fight tenaciously to ensure that their clients’ rights are always protected.

Free Consultation

When you face drug charges, you must take immediate action and hire the best lawyer you can find.  Call us or schedule an online consultation on our website to speak with a lawyer and learn about every option available to you and how we can help you.   There is no cost or obligation and you will at the very least obtain some good legal advice which will answer your questions and point you in the right direction.

Kruse Law Firm operates out of our offices in Kitchener, London, Toronto, and Windsor to assist clients throughout Ontario.