What to do if I’m Charged with a Drug Crime?

If you have been charged with a crime of possession of drugs, there may be programs available to you to help reduce your sentence or resolve the case more favorably. Let’s look at the state side first.

If you have been charged with a serious drug crime and you are facing jail time, depending on what your addiction issues are (if you have them), you may be eligible for the drug court program. The drug court program here in the state of Maine is an intensive, supervised outcome. You sign a contract where you have either a good outcome or a bad outcome.

The good outcome is after a year if you have done everything you are supposed to do, successfully completed the drug treatment program for drug court, stayed clean, and done what you needed to do, that outcome could be a dismissal of charges, reduction of charges, or something as simple as not going back to jail. The bad outcome is you could be sentenced to the maximum sentence allowed by law.

On the federal side, if you are convicted in federal court of a crime involving drugs, and you have a documented substance abuse issue, you may be eligible for the ARDAT program. It is a federal drug rehabilitation program. It is a 500 hour course, it is six months long, and it can knock off as much as a year from your sentence. That would be the only program available to you on the federal side.