What to Do if You Fail a Drug Test While on Probation in Texas

 Posted on November 22, 2023 in Criminal Defense

Failing a court-ordered drug test while on probation can have devastating consequences, including potential revocation and incarceration. However, with an experienced Texas lawyer guiding you through the process, options may exist to help with your freedom and negotiate second chances

Seek Legal Representation Promptly

If a failed, positive drug screening comes back from the lab against the terms of your probation, immediately inform your probation officer transparently. You should first discuss the next best steps and strategy in confidentiality with a criminal lawyer, specifically in these matters. In Texas, any admission of guilt to authorities without an attorney present can critically backfire in court.

Assess Any Contraband Defense Excuses in Your Favor

Work with your attorney to determine whether any viable defenses apply to potentially excuse, justify, or cast strong doubt about substance usage on the preliminary findings. Time-sensitive possibilities include procedural flaws or deviations in the handling or testing process, which could compromise validity, false positive substance test results, legitimate passive inhalation issues, or credibly lacking knowledge of or intent for contraband exposure before the collected drug test sample.

Upon request, your attorney can also obtain confirmation testing of held samples by independent medical review. They can scrutinize all protocols, forms, chain of custody documents, and handling steps involved in the original drug screening collection process. Certain prescription drugs are also widely known to prompt false positives on common low-cost screening tests.

Create Sentence Mitigation Factors in Your Favor

If probation violation allegations ultimately still stand firm enough to proceed, your responsive attorney also begins preparing written sentencing mitigating arguments. This is to put you in the best possible light when facing the judge. It can intentionally highlight examples of rehabilitation progress made and milestones genuinely achieved during your period of community supervision probation up until this isolated setback. Judges legally have limited but useful discretion in accounting for the balance of achievements versus violations.

To further mitigate, the additional connection is made by citing the difficulty of life circumstances that disrupted stabilities and may have influenced or enabled unfortunate one-time access to substance use temptation. This could be scenarios like job loss, relationship breakup, family illness trauma, or unmanaged mental health issues. The compassionate goal becomes further humanizes the context of mistakes. It helps the court see how much motivation exists inside you to get back on track regarding compliance from here forward.

Contact a Denton County, TX Criminal Defense Attorney

If you are facing a probation violation, you deserve a fair chance at seeing how you may potentially be able to lessen the charge. A Cooke County, TX criminal defense lawyer can help you. Call Magaña & Van Dyke at 940-382-1976 to schedule a free consultation.