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When the police enter houses and apartments on college campuses when they suspect underage drinking, usually they check all rooms and closets for people who are hiding. If they happen to open a closet where somebody was growing marijuana, are they allowed to prosecute the owner? They weren't searching for it to begin with, so is any type of privacy maintained?
You give up a lot of your rights when living on campus (owned by the school) or even renting from a landlord.
In general terms if they are looking for one crime but find another, it is still fair game regardless of where you are though.
When you actually OWN your place and property(house/condo), the police and what not have to obtain a warrant to search your home. If the warrant, which by law has to be very descriptive on what they are trying to find, is issued to find a meth lab in your basement.. the police have to obtain another warrant if they find a grow house in your room and want to prosecute you on it.
A dorm room is completely different, the school has every right to search your room whenever they like, especially when there is any sort of complaint. So sorry, if they find a grow room in your dorm you'll be attending a state school or community college the very next day.
What about a rented townhouse or apartment?
Yes, It's the same. If the property is not YOURS.
My advice:
GROW IN THE WOODS.
I want to add that even warrantless entries due to medical emergencies, domestic violence, etc. are good for prosecution. They still would need to get a warrant after finding the stash but that's a technicality, you still get busted nonetheless. In fact, legally, basically anything outside the "curtilage" of your home (the immediate vicinity) is fair game. This includes wooden shacks, greenhouses, bags of trash out in the open. If your house was on, say, an acre of land and the perimeter had trees blocking view from the street, the trees don't matter, the police can still waltz onto your property right up to the curtilage. (The moral of the story, buy picket fences, they can count towards being the curtilage.)
What if your stash is locked up in a box in your dorm? Do they still have the right to search that? Not as if I have a stash at all ;)
In Mississippi, within 1500 feet of *ANY* church or school is a felony. Go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
When you live in the dorms, you give up *most* of your rights to privacy and search/seizure. Read the fine print in the papers you signed when you checked into the dorm.