Interviewer: What are all the different kinds of drugs?

Marijuana Is Most Common Drug Charge

Brian Geno: The most common drug that I think you would find in the counties where I work in Virginia is marijuana. There are probably as many arrests for marijuana as there are for every other kind of drug in this area combined. Probably a lot of it has to do with the fact that marijuana, in many places throughout the country, is now legal. 22 different states have statutes legalizing marijuana in some form or another.

After that, you’ll find cases, the most serious ones I would say are probably heroin, ecstasy and LSD. Those are probably the most damaging to the user. Then we also find cocaine possession or cocaine distribution. Methamphetamine or what they call crystal meth is another big one.

Drug Charges Can Be from Illegal or Legal Drugs

There are also all kinds of stimulants which are illegal. Morphine and PCP is still a favored one that comes up maybe not as much as the others, but it’s fairly common. Methadone use is serious. Then we start to get into some of the ones which are really illegal to possess but they’re legal drugs that you can obtain through prescription, like Ritalin.

You can go into stores and see certain medications that by themselves seem kind of harmless but they will be under lock and key on the store shelf. Those are drugs that can be abused through a simple chemical process and so these places are required to keep them locked on the shelf or keep them behind the counter at a pharmacy.

The Police Will Arrest People for the Misuse or Illegal Possession of Prescription Medication

Vicodin is another one as well as Valium. You may remember a few years ago that a radio personality, Rush Limbaugh was arrested for possession of a prescription drug. Oxycodone was the one in particular that Rush Limbaugh had, but drugs like that are so easy to misuse and police do arrest people for the illegal possession of legal drugs.

Possession of Marijuana Is a Common Drug-Related Charge

Interviewer: Which out of those would you say are the most common kind of cases that you have seen?

Brian Geno: The ones that come to my office most often are possession of marijuana. Those are cases I like to handle. We’ve developed a real system for handling those cases and the courts have developed a series of programs that people can avail themselves of if needed.

I have also handled cases involving ecstasy, methamphetamine and LSD. Those crop up quite a bit. Those are obviously in addition to alcohol abuse that people can get themselves in trouble with.