My wife and I had turned in our 16 year old for doing marijuana. What are the legal issues he may face?

I agree with your decision to punish your child. This sends a strong message that drugs are not tolerated in your household PERIOD!!!. Your decision will help him in the future as he will not be experimenting with drugs anymore, if he does he will have to think about it a few times. Your strong stance has prevented further experimenting with drugs now since he will have to leave with the consequences of his actions for the rest of this life. My parents took the same action on me when I was 17 years old and I'm 35 now, and I've not touched drugs since then. Kudos to you and your family for taking this action. Methguy.

Well, the legal issues he "will" face may be different from those he "may" face.

It will all depend on the DA. He has wide discretion on how to proceed. What we can do, though, is look at the "worst case" scenario, on the understanding that what actually happens may be less than this.

First, at 16 he's still a juvenile, but the DA may choose to prosecute him as an adult.

The fact that there were plants means that he can be prosecuted for cultivation, which is a felony. In MI the penalty for cultivation of marijuana (less than 20 plants) is 4 years in State prison, plus a $20,000 fine. Since he's 16, though, he would actually serve his sentence in a Juvenile facility for the first two years, then be transferred to State prison. Since the penalty for this is so much more serious than the misdemeanor of simple possession (90 days / $100 fine), it's very unlikely he'd also be charged with the possession at all.

On his release he will be a convicted felon. That means he will not be eligible to vote or to own a firearm. He wil also be barred from eligibility for 'most' college grant and loan programs.

Finally, as a person convicted of a drug felony, he'll be ineligible to join the military or serve as a cop, and will be unable to obtain a license as a lawyer, doctor, nurse, teacher, or many other occupations, and even many jobs that he's legally still allowed to do will be closed to him because employers don't like to hire ex-cons.

On the bright side, it's "possible" that the DA may choose to only prosecute him as a juvenile, not an adult, and might even be willing to plead down the felony charge to a misdemeanor. Do not be 'too' hopeful for this though. DA's plead so as not to risk losing a case at trial. I see no weaknesses in his case from what you've posted, though, so he's got very little incentive to do so.

He may well allow your son to plead guilty in exchange for a promise of a lighter sentence, but I'd be "very" surprised if he's willing to let such an easy felony conviction go altogether - and it is the post-conviction consequences of a felony conviction that really hurt in the long run, not the couple of years in lock-up.

To the numerous people who said his record will be sealed when he turns 18, that is NOT necessarily the case in MI for felony convictions. If he's tried as an adult (and it would be VERY unusual for a 16 year old to be tried as a juvenile of felony charges) and convicted of a felony, it becomes part of his adult record.

There are many things you can possibly do to try to minimize the life-long consequences, but they're too long to go into on here (and you have email blocked). If you don't want to cut him loose on his own entirely, you should hire him a lawyer.

Richard

You have done more damage to his future then the pot would have even come close to doing, well done.

Sounds like he was doing great in school, probably great with his peers, the only thing he did was smoke pot.....where are the negatives that you are supposed to be seeing? Why didn't he drop out of school? Why weren't his grades falling? Why wasn't he commiting crimes to satisfy his drug habit? He was smoking for 3 years after all, I would assume there would be some negative side affects after 3 years of use....

Reading what you have done makes me sick. Your son is now a criminal, no government jobs, no military, certain colleges are now out, international travelling is going to be affected, he can no longer live up to his full potential. You totally messed up, and I bet your son hates you for life, but at least he's not smoking pot. Maybe he'll be an alcoholic instead.

At least I can learn from your mistake, and treat my son with a little love and compassion if I ever have to face this issue in my life.

Well you should have just handled this as a family instead of getting the police involved.

You do realize that under the Rico Act the cops can cease YOUR house from you because of what he was doing right?

Not to mention him having a criminal record is going to be more detrimental to his future than smoking a little weed.

You may have done that to keep him from destroying his future, because you wanted to ruin it for him??

There is lots you could have done before involving the police & giving him a record. I know if I ever find my son doing that, I won't do what you did first...that would be a last ditch effort to save his life.

Do you see a possible disconnect in that the only way his future was harmed was by you all reporting him.

Thus, he smoked marijuana, grew marijuana, but still was an honor student who generally behaved himself. I don't do drugs of any type, but it seems here that it is your actions which most threatened his future. He was taking care of business and being an upstanding student...good for him.

I am not sure of the laws in Michigan, but wanted to support you on the tough decision you had to make. You sent a clear message that you will not tolerate this, but you obviously love him very much.

When I was 15, my parents called the police on me for some things I got tangled up in. I was a good kid but did some bad things. I ended up getting 3 years probation and I know that I broke my parents hearts to do that.

Now as an adult, I know it took a tremendous amount of courage for them to do that. I wish you the best with this very tough situation - stay strong!

not to be rude or anything but you may well have ruined his future by doing that.manufactoring is a class c felony. if he is convicted his chances of getting into a quality school will be influenced by this.they do complete background checks now.let alone his ability to get a job with a felony conviction.you may have forced him into a lifetime of working at mcdonalds! you should have taken it and warned him first.never call the police over something you can take care of at home.

I think you may have overreacted. He could be facing felony convictions for growing marijuana. It will depend on the laws in MI, but in many states if the plants weigh more than 100 grams he could be charged as a felony. That will not look to good for his "future".

Lots of the answers you have received are inaccurate. First, he's underage, so it will be the juvenile justice system that will be dealing with him. Second, juvenile convictions are usually sealed and unavailable to employers' background checks. Third, if he's never been in trouble before, the prosecutor who is handling the case may be willing to plead him to a lesser crime than cultivation.