Drug Crimes Defense Attorney in Southeast Michigan

What a drug charge really puts at risk

It can start with a traffic stop, a search, or a knock at the door. One moment, and suddenly it feels like it could cost you everything.

That is the part that keeps people up at night. Not the courtroom. The rest of it. The job you could lose. The promotion that quietly goes to someone else. The application that asks the one question you do not want to answer. The license you spent years earning. The school, the career, the trust of the people closest to you. A drug charge reaches past the court and into all of it.

The court carries its own weight too. Depending on the charge, that can mean probation, jail, and in the most serious cases, prison.

You do not have to face this alone.

Scott goes through every piece of evidence the prosecution has against you, page by page. Then he sits down with you and walks you through all of it, so you finally understand what they have, how strong it really is, and whether they can actually prove it. He challenges what should be challenged. He tells you the truth about where you stand, not what is easiest to hear.

Then he works toward the best ending your case allows. Sometimes that is a charge reduced. Sometimes it is a deferral that keeps this off your record. Sometimes the case does not hold up, and it is dismissed. And when the right move is to take it to trial, he is ready for that too.

He pursues every option the evidence allows.

What Scott looks at in a drug case

• ✓Looks at how the stop and the search actually happened, and whether the police had the legal basis they needed. When a stop, search, or warrant crosses a Fourth Amendment line, the evidence can sometimes be challenged or kept out.
• ✓Looks at whether the prosecution can actually connect the drugs to you. Being near drugs is not the same as possessing them, and that difference often decides a case.
• ✓Reviews the lab analysis and the charged weight, because what the substance is, how it was tested, and how much there was all shape the charge and how serious it is.
• ✓Looks at whether the facts support the charge actually filed, such as whether a simple possession case has been charged as intent to deliver.
• ✓Looks at whether you qualify for Section 7411, Michigan's first-offender program that can lead to dismissal and no public conviction record for eligible possession cases.

Understanding the Charge

Scott has handled hundreds of drug cases across Southeast Michigan.

Scott defends both state and federal drug charges, including in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and handles cases involving Schedule I through V substances, from marijuana over-limit cases to fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

Drug crimes in Michigan are governed primarily by MCL 333.7401 (delivery and manufacturing) and MCL 333.7403 (possession), within the Michigan Public Health Code.

Charges are categorized by the controlled substance schedule. Schedule I and II substances generally carry the highest penalties.

Common charges Scott defends include simple possession, possession with intent to deliver (PWID), delivery, manufacturing, maintaining a drug house, and drug paraphernalia.

Marijuana possession in Michigan is largely decriminalized for adults under the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act (MRTMA), but charges still apply for distribution to minors, possession over legal limits, and operating a vehicle under the influence of marijuana. Drugged driving is often pursued as Operating With Any Presence of a Schedule 1 or 2 Controlled Substance (OWPD), which overlaps with OWI/DUI and OWPD defense.

Scott has defended drug cases across Southeast Michigan, in Macomb, Oakland, Wayne, and St. Clair counties and throughout Metro Detroit, from the district courts up to the 16th Circuit Court in Mt. Clemens for felony-level drug cases.