You were released on bond and told to stay away from drugs and alcohol but you still have THC in your system - do you have to worry about status being revoked?

Answer 1

If you are on BOND, but undergo a court ordered test, the court MAY revoke your bond. If you are on probation or parole and undergo a routine test, you WILL be revoked. What you really need to watch out for is having your bailbondsman revoke your bond. As an independent businessman he has no obligation to keep his money at risk if you are continuing to conduct yourself in an unlawful manner. RxMcKernan's answer: If you receive a sentence of probation for a marijuana offense and undergo routine or random drug testing as a result, your probation officer knows that you will likely fail the first urine or blood test he administers. In fact, he expects you to fail it, after-all, you were just convicted of a drug crime. If you do fail that first test, expect him to follow up with at least a second test, but probably more. He will be expecting the levels of THC found in your system to be decreasing with each test you are given. What will concern your probation officer and almost certainly revoke or sanction your probation is if he finds those levels of THC going up or even just remaining the same (i.e. not going down). All of this is due to the nature of THC and how it is stored and released by your body. Unlike many other illegal drugs, THC is a fat-soluble molecule and is stored as fat in your body's fatty tissue. This results in a very slow release from the body and a very slow decomposition of the detectable levels of the cannibanoids (i.e. THC processed by your body) that you are being tested for. The tests don't really test for THC, but rather the by-products created by your body digesting the THC and other chemicals inhaled when you smoked the marijuana that got you high. These cannibanoid and cannabonid by-products, stored as fat in the body, are not water-soluble and, as such, are released very slowy from your system. A heavy smoker can expect to still have detectable levels 2 weeks after discontinued use of marijuana, and possibly even as long as 30 days after last use. What all this means for you is that the levels of these by-products in your system must be getting lower and lower with each subsequent test administered or it will be assumed that you have injested THC in violation of the terms of your probation and subject to revokation or sanction of your probation in accordance with the laws of your state. <<<#1 Note*>>> this gradual reduction of detectable levels "grace period" is only true in the case of marijuana because of its fat-soluble nature. Other illegal drugs, as well as alcohol, are water-soluble and released much more quickly by the body. As such, if you test positive on any test after the first one they expect you to fail, you will have violated and are subject to consequences. <<<#2 Note**>>> Not all states, and not all P.O.'s (probation officers) grant leniency or understanding when it comes to that first test, because when it comes down to the letter of the law, you are technically violating the terms of your probation if you return anything other than a clean result when tested. But with regards to marijuana, and only marijuana, this gradual reduction of detectable levels is common practice in most states and with most probation officers worth their salt. But you never know, if your assigned P.O. is a green rookie out to impress the higher-ups, or just the one strictly-by-the-book, Horror-story, hard-ass you hear about but hope not to get, because nearly every corrections office has one or the other, or both. So be careful, because one last toke won't seem worth it when you're doing a 90-day sanction or worse, perhaps, if you're serving probation in lieu of a suspended sentence, any violation could result in the implementation of that full sentence. Most importantly, learn the laws and practices that govern the terms of your probation and sentence. Your P.O. will give a list of these terms the 1st time you meet with him/her, and you will be asked to sign as an indication of your having understood them, and from that point on you are fully liable if you break them. So if you have questions about the finer points of your terms and consequences for violation of them, this first session with your P.O. is your time to ask, not after you've signed, and certainly not after you have violated because, by then, it will be too late.