Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(E)  Other Grounds of Removal. For the criminal ground of inadmissibility, whether this is an admission of committing a crime related to a controlled substance depends on the dates, the jurisdiction, and the particular circumstances of the conduct involved, whether lab tests were done to identify the substances, etc., to determine whether all the essential elements of the offense have been admitted.  For example, under federal law, and in some state jurisdictions, mere use, without possession, is not a crime.  If the client is not qualified to determine the identity of the substances s/he consumed, s/he may not be able to admit that they were in fact controlled substances, given the many counterfeit substances purveyed on the street these days, and the unreliability of some drug dealers.