Toronto Drug Lawyer - Vick Hundal

The prosecutor must prove that the accused is guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.” At the end of the trial, if the prosecutor has not presented enough evidence, or if the judge or jury still has a reasonable doubt about whether the accused committed the crime, he or she must be found not guilty.

Crown Counsel is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual charged had an illegal drug in his or her possession. The prosecutor can do this if they establish:

• The person charged knows what the substance is.
• The person charged had some level of control over the substance.

If illegal drugs have been found in your pocket, in your hand, in your bag or any other type of container that you are carrying, it is considered that you are in actual possession of the drugs. However, a principle called “constructive possession,” allows suspects to be convicted of drug crimes even if they are not in actual possession of the drugs.  Therefore, even if the suspect is across the street from an illegal drug, he or she may still be charged if the government can prove the drugs were constructively possessed.

If you have been presented with a search warrant by the police, it will explicitly detail what they are exactly allowed to search. If the search goes outside of this, then the search is not considered a legal search hence the police would have to obtain a new search warrant that also now includes the areas they wanted to search outside of the scope of the original search.