[Johnny555]

He was aware it was his grandmother's car, he wasn't aware the brake light was out.

I don't know if you've seen elderly people take pills, but they often have poor eyesight coupled with poor motor skills so losing a pill or two is not surprising. We put my elderly dad's pills in a daily pill holder (one for morning pills, one for evening pills) because he had trouble counting them out himself. Though if a pill is taken on demand, like a painkiller, leaving them in the bottle may be more sensible.

As for how it ended up on the passenger's side, I would hope that if grandma is on narcotic painkillers that she's taking them while she is a passenger, not driving.

As for wether or not someone can be convicted for even one small pill, yes, it is possible... for example:

In NJ: Possessing any amount of a schedule I, II, III, or IV CDS incurs a fine of up to $35,000, at least three (and up to five) years in prison, or both. Possessing any amount of a Schedule V CDS incurs a fine of up to $15,000, up to 18 months in prison, or both. Using or being under the influence of any CDS not for the purpose of treating a sickness or injury (as legally prescribed by a licensed physician) incurs a fine of up to $500.

http://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal...

[r00fus]

A perfectly screwed up law designed to increase arrests without any effort on the part of law enforcement to prove it was legit...

[dominotw]

>Prosecutors only have to show that the accused knew the drugs were present and intended to use or control them.

Curious how they established that.

[Johnny555]

One way is by asking -- if the cop said "Did you know that pill was there", and he says "Yeah, grandma is always dropping pills, I was going to pick them up after I got home".

There, proven that he knew they were present and intended take possession.

It's another example of why you should never talk to the police -- it's not going to help you, and may end up hurting you.

http://www.vice.com/read/law-professor-police-interrogation-...

[dominotw]

wow. Thats just insane that you can just get convicted and get your life ruined just like that. Just pure madness. Prbly happens on daily basis to take a productive member of society and throw him into an abyss. scary stuff.

[andrei_says_]

Which is the goal of the drug war.

"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/03/23/poli...

[jlarocco]

If the cop saw the pill during a 5 minute traffic stop it's hard to believe the driver didn't see it the entire time he was in the car.

And there were two things going against this guy. First, cops have a lot of incentive to make drug busts and not much incentive to be lenient.

And second, "It's not mine, it's grandma's" would be the first thing I'd expect from somebody who was abusing or selling pills.

[indiv0]

Except in this case the cop would've been actively looking for anything suspicious in the car, while the driver would've been focused on the road most of the time he was in the car.

How often do you look at the passenger's floor as a driver?

As for the excuse, that might be the first thing to expect, but that doesn't automatically make him a liar. The onus is on the law to establish that it's not grandma's. Plus, grandma actually did have a prescription for the narcotic, so even if the excuse might sound shady, it's certainly plausible.

[jlarocco]

To put it in a different perspective, if I were driving around with empty beer cans in my car, I would expect problems if I got pulled over by the police. Nobody in their right mind would accept the "I didn't know it was there" excuse in that case, and I don't see why pills would be any different.

I agree 100% that the truth should have come out in court and that the end result (if true) was ridiculous. All I'm saying is that from the cop's perspective the evidence on the scene looked sketchy and he did his job.

[funnyfacts365]

What's the problem with empty beer cans? Don't you Americans have breathalizers to know if a person was under the influence while driving that you need to fuck people over for being untidy?

[saiya-jin]

US is a pretty messed up place when you consider anything mentioned as 'just doing his job'