“Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind allowing mistakes — and, more importantly, the time to correct them.”
Tristan Bernard
Youth is prone to mistakes... It turns out this isn’t only because young people are flighty by nature. There’s a physiological reason too. By the laws of nature, the part of the brain responsible for processing information, making decisions, and assessing situations is the last to develop. That’s why young people so often make what older generations see as utterly foolish mistakes and miscalculations. There is virtually no way to avoid this fate entirely. Fortunately, in most cases there’s not much reason to despair either — over time, the brain’s underdeveloped abilities gradually mature. The method of “trial and error” (in other words, life experience) helps with that. And yet, to avoid the pain of looking back on “thoughtlessly lived” young years, one can try to do what almost no one, regardless of age, enjoys doing — learning from other people’s mistakes. This is especially true for fatal mistakes that would be extremely difficult, or even impossible, to undo. In this article, we address a topic highly relevant to today’s youth — the use and distribution of drugs in Germany — and tell the story of how we helped a young man in a very difficult life situation avoid derailing his future.
Using hashish or marijuana is known in German slang as “Kiffen.” In Germany, the use of these two drugs is not, in itself, prohibited by law, since under the Narcotics Act (German: Betäubungsmittelgesetz, BtMG) this is not a criminal offense and carries no penalty. It must be kept in mind, however, that possessing, cultivating (with some exceptions), producing, importing, exporting, distributing, selling, putting into circulation, or otherwise acquiring illegal narcotics is prohibited. Under this law, then, the use of narcotics is divided into legal and illegal use. §29 BtMG sets out a list of sanctions for offenders — depending on the severity of the offense, the penalty can be imprisonment for up to five years or a fine. As for the so-called “putting into circulation” of drugs, a certain complication arises: if a person “puts drugs into circulation” by giving them to a friend for free, or buying something for a friend from a dealer, is this a criminal offense? German courts have taken inconsistent positions on this question, but this kind of conduct is unambiguously recognized as “putting into circulation” within the meaning of the law. As a result, such “favors among friends” can land an ordinary user in serious trouble.
Client Story: A Search of Father and Son’s Apartment
Two women once came to our law firm, both in a rather distressed emotional state. They were the mother and girlfriend of a young man who had gotten himself into trouble. They were so overwhelmed by the situation that they could barely describe what had happened coherently. It turned out that 21-year-old Stas (name changed) was charged with illegal drug dealing. The day before coming to us — namely, on August 31, 2017 — a search had been carried out at the apartment where Stas lived with his parents, uncovering weapons and drugs belonging, respectively, to the father and the son. As one might expect, both father and son were arrested and held in custody at the local police station. Since we were only permitted to represent one of the two defendants, we took on the case of the younger man, Stanislav.
To piece together the full picture of what had happened, we requested the case file from the police. It turned out the young man had been spotted and caught one evening when, unfortunately for him, plainclothes officers were patrolling the area. Stas, as he had done before, was standing by his car dealing marijuana. Cars carrying Stas’s friends and acquaintances would pull up next to him; he would sell them light drugs, chat briefly, and make some arrangement. All of this, naturally, drew the officers’ attention. The police decided to act firmly and swiftly. A personal search turned up a bag of marijuana on the young man, and his car was seized as evidence. Moreover, heading straight from the scene to the apartment where Stas lived, the police found large quantities of drugs, along with weapons — both antique collector’s pieces as well as bladed and firearms.
The Lawyer’s Work: Released Pending Trial
The case looked extremely serious — in the worst case, the young man faced up to five years’ imprisonment. In addition, a decision on pre-trial detention needed to be made at the time — the young man could either be sent home pending trial or held in pre-trial detention until the verdict. It should be noted that, typically, where a serious sentence is at stake and there is a significant risk that the accused might flee the investigation, pre-trial detention is chosen as the preventive measure. Although this outcome clearly threatened our client, we resolved to do everything possible to keep him at home while awaiting trial.
We prepared and filed a petition with the public prosecutor’s office requesting his release pending trial. We based our position on the fact that Stas had a compelling reason not to leave his permanent place of residence: his girlfriend was expecting his child, due in just two months. In addition, we assured the investigating authorities that Stas deeply regretted what he had done, was prepared to make a full confession, and had no intention whatsoever of evading the investigation or the proceedings. We attached, of course, a full set of supporting documents to the petition. Fortunately, the law enforcement authorities found our arguments convincing and agreed to release our client pending trial.
Preparing for Trial: A Full Confession and the Birth of a Son
Since the offense had been committed under aggravating circumstances — drugs were found both on the young man personally and in large quantities at the apartment, an apartment that also contained weapons — we understood that discontinuing the case was not going to be possible. Our primary goal in defending our client was therefore to secure the shortest possible suspended sentence for what he had done. We actively built our defense strategy ahead of the hearing and persuaded Stas to give the court a full and honest confession. As we rightly believed, this would improve his chances of humane treatment by the court and a less severe sentence. In addition, we managed to have Stas’s case heard not before a panel of judges at the regional court, as is done for particularly serious offenses, but before a lay assessor court (Schöffengericht, SchG), consisting of a professional judge and lay assessors.
Our firm’s criminal defense lawyer, who defended our client at trial, fully understood the importance of the proceedings and his own professional responsibility. After all, at stake was the fate of a still-young man who had stumbled in his youth and who was planning a long and happy life ahead of him. To Stas’s pride, two weeks before the hearing, he became a young father. As often happens in such cases, his close relatives, including his grandparents, came to support the hapless “dealer” at the hearing. His mother was there, of course, as was the young woman who had just become the mother of his son, Alexander (name changed). These circumstances no doubt softened the experienced judge and the lay assessors right from the start of the hearing.
On his lawyer’s advice, Stanislav told the court exactly how things had really happened. He convincingly assured the panel that this chapter of his life was behind him and that he would never return to his former destructive habits. He now bore responsibility not only for his own life, but for that of his newborn son as well. In addition, our arguments also weighed in the defendant’s favor — that the young man had only used and sold soft drugs himself, that this was his first offense, and that he personally had had nothing to do with the weapons found in the apartment.
Outcome: Two Years’ Imprisonment, Suspended
The court took all of these arguments into account and, to our shared relief, handed down a fairly lenient sentence — two years’ imprisonment, suspended. If Stas commits no further offenses over the next three years, this conviction will be expunged, and the family will be able to leave this chapter of their lives behind like a bad dream.
Conclusion
For our part, we sincerely hope that the risk of losing one of the most important values in human life — freedom — will make Stas stop and reconsider his priorities in life. Unfortunately, mistakes made in youth can fatally alter one’s future. We wish, from the bottom of our hearts, that none of our readers’ families ever face a situation like this. And should trouble strike, we are here at our law firm, where our lawyers will do everything possible to help you resolve the problem as quickly and favorably as possible.
All rights reserved. Copying or republishing this article requires a link to the original source.
