trouble on campus, but is it legal?

[action.420]

... so heres the story... a student of a private university (who lives on campus) was ambushed recently... RA's of this certain university responded to complaints about the smell of a specific illegal substance, Mary Jane... The RA's proceeded to knock on the door of this students dorm room and the student opened the door completely unaware of the situation... The two RA's asked the student if they could come in and look around for any evidence and the student complied... The RA's found several empty alcoholic beverage containers and claim to have found small residue of cannabis (a stem most likely)... it is probably important to note that when the RA's did enter the room they were accompanied by on campus security guards... most of the empty beer containers were in a trash bag that was then confiscated by on campus security (all other cans were placed in the bag as well).. there may also be a shattered/broken pipe from previous times in the bag along with maybe one or more empty blunt wrap containers... the RA's then took several pictures of areas they deemed to be cannabis infested... they then left and informed the student he/she will hear about it when classes resume on Monday... well not so fast... 30 minutes later the student recieves another knock on the door, this time the five o ... they ask the student for his/her dl and poceed to ask the student were they got the alcohol from, and then the marijuana from; both of which the student offered no answer to... the officers then write the student a ticket for underage possession of alcohol and leave.... heres the thing... school officials claim that the police have evidence of what they think is cannabis and are sending it out to a lab to be tested, and if proven so, will return in the coming days to arrest the student... obviously any evidence of cannabis was not originally collected or confiscated by the police from the room themselves and no search warrant was issued providing justification for the search and seizure of objects in the room... would the police in this circumstance be within all legal restraints to use evidence collected by a campus RA or security guard against the student?... something just smells fishy to me about the situation.... any opinions or facts regarding this endeavor are greatly appreciated

action.420 Reviewed by action.420 on 02-03-2008. trouble on campus, but is it legal? ... so heres the story... a student of a private university (who lives on campus) was ambushed recently... RA's of this certain university responded to complaints about the smell of a specific illegal substance, Mary Jane... The RA's proceeded to knock on the door of this students dorm room and the student opened the door completely unaware of the situation... The two RA's asked the student if they could come in and look around for any evidence and the student complied... The RA's found several Rating: 5

[psteve]

Sorry, it was legal.
If he lived off campus it wouldn't be, but the university owns the dorms, and also, he let them in.
P.S. I am not licensed to practice law in whatever state this happened in.

[Dream of the iris]

Yeah man that really sucks that it happened to your friend. Unfortunately they had the right to do it because essentially they own the dorm. Though I know in my state Police officers can't enter a dorm room without permission an RA certainly can....at least thats around here, I don't know about your campus. Also he willingly let them in and willingly, though remorsefully, gave up that evidence. Something similar happened to me once. If only I had told the police officer to get a search warrant before he entered I could have literally gotten out of it. Next time your friend or you are in a situation like that and you know there's no time to hide it unless you buy yourself some time, ask for a search warrant. It could save your life.

[action.420]

... can the student be arrested for such a small amount of cannabis?... one stem...?

[Dream of the iris]

Most certainly. Someone can get arrested for having a drug paraphanelia as long as it has been used for pot. They would obviously confiscate it and send the residue to the lab for testing and of course if it came up positive that person would be "boned". So even a single bud or stem is enough to get arrested though it really depends on where you are and who is catching you. If these guys arrest you then they're complete pricks with nothing else to do. This one time I got busted on campus for about a half ounce and a little less than a quarter with 12 counts of paraphanellia as well as about a case of beer and I still didn't get arrested. They just issued me a citation and told the school which is what really got me in trouble....but my advice to your friend is that in spite of all the shit that he's gonna have to deal with, this too shall pass and one day as long as he keeps his head clean he'll be alright and back to his life again.

[L Rag]

And the police have nothing better to do than arrest a dude who had a fucking STEM. Haha.

[action.420]

One more question do RA's/Cops have to bring fourth the evidence they are using against a student right then and there? Say for example there was a shattered/broken pipe in a students trashcan with marijuana residue in it and they were to find it after looking into the trashcan (Even though the trash had nothing to do with the reason they entered the room). Is it illegal to take someone's trash? Or is it entirely dependent upon the university and the state laws? Thanks.

[action.420]

Also, when collecting evidence do they need to use their own trashbag (I.E for collecting beer cans) or can they use the trashcan in a students room and doe's it matter if the trashcan/bag was open or closed? Thanks again

[Dream of the iris]

First off it is totally legal to take someone's trash. If it is the RA they have the right to enter without a search warrant and a police officer can only go in without a search warrant if the person gave consent which in this case he did. Because he allowed him to and because he would have found a broken piece with residue it is automatically collected as evidence. Those bastards took a really awesome gym bag of mine because it was collected for evidence...you probably won't see that trash can again so I hope your not too set on it. Anyway all in all it is legal to go through someone's trash if they have a search warrant or if the person allowed consent to enter the house. The only time a person can go through someone's trash without permission or a search warrant is if the trash is on the curb. Thats how a lot of big time drug dealers end up getting busted, so thats a good tip if anyone reading this is getting tailed by police. I think that answers your question, it was a bit ambiguous so let me know if it doesn't answer it.....oh yeah and as far as the second part no they can take the trash bag/can because it automatically becomes evidence.

[8182KSKUSH]

This sounds legit to me, sounds like you are busted er uh I mean your um uh friend ya.:wtf: