Sharing prescriptions can lead to drug charges

On Behalf of | Mar 12, 2021 | Uncategorized |

You have never thought of yourself as a criminal, and certainly not as a drug dealer. Words like that conjure up all sorts of images from TV and movies of characters with a trunk full of drugs, making deals in a dark alley. That’s not something you’d ever do.

That may be true, but you could still face charges for distributing drugs. It can be as simple as sharing your prescription medications with a friend or family member. Many people run afoul of the law because they do not even realize that what they are doing is illegal.

That prescription is only for you

The problem is that a prescription authorizes you to have and use the drugs, but no one else. The confusion comes when people assume that any medication they legally obtained is always going to be legal. A friend may come to you with a similar ailment and you’ll offer to “let them try a few” pills to see if they work. Or you may have a leftover bottle from when you were using more of the medication, and you could sell it to a friend who needs it. You just think you’re helping, but you’re actually illegally moving prohibited drugs to a person who does not have a prescription and is not using them as intended.

Are you facing charges?

If you get arrested, you’ll probably try to explain that you didn’t mean to do anything wrong. That may help you avoid an in-depth investigation to see if you’re dealing more widely, but it does not make what you did any more legal. You could still end up facing serious charges and you must know what options you have.