A drug crime lawyer in Arizona defends clients accused of offenses involving marijuana, dangerous drugs, or narcotic drugs under Arizona Revised Statutes 13-3405, 13-3407, and 13-3408. Oliverson Law DUI & Criminal Defense combines judicial, prosecutorial, and law enforcement experience across Maricopa and Mohave counties. Call (480) 582-3637 for a free case evaluation.
Arizona prosecutes drug offenses under three principal statutes that divide controlled substances into distinct categories. ARS 13-3405 covers marijuana offenses. Since Proposition 207 (2020), possession, use, and personal cultivation within the Proposition 207 limits are legal for adults 21 and older. Possession outside those limits, transportation for sale, and unlicensed distribution remain prosecutable.
ARS 13-3407 covers dangerous drugs — methamphetamine, MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, and similar scheduled substances defined in ARS 13-3401. The statute criminalizes possession, possession for sale, transportation, administration, and manufacturing.
ARS 13-3408 covers narcotic drugs — cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, and related opioid and cocaine-family substances also defined in ARS 13-3401. Like ARS 13-3407, it criminalizes possession, possession for sale, transportation, administration, and certain prescription-related conduct.
Arizona’s Proposition 200 (codified at ARS 13-901.01) mandates probation rather than prison on a first or second qualifying simple-possession conviction. Prop 200 does not apply to possession for sale, transportation, manufacturing, or cases at or above threshold amounts defined in ARS 13-3401(36). Because threshold amounts and charging decisions are both contestable, drug-crime defense often focuses on whether the case was correctly charged as simple possession, possession for sale, or transportation.
Arizona’s criminal process moves quickly, and the decisions made in the first 48 to 72 hours after an arrest shape the rest of the case. The exact timeline depends on the charge and the court, but most Arizona cases follow the same four stages.
If you are arrested, Rule 4.1 of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure requires that you be brought before a judge for an Initial Appearance within 24 hours. That is when release conditions — bond, own-recognizance release, or pretrial detention — are set. Having counsel in place before the Initial Appearance can directly affect the conditions the court orders.
Felony arraignments in Superior Court and misdemeanor arraignments in city or justice court are where the charges are formally read and a plea is entered. A not-guilty plea at arraignment preserves every defense and triggers the State’s disclosure obligations under Rule 15.
This is the stage where most criminal cases are decided. Motions to suppress evidence, motions challenging the charging instrument, and review of police reports, body camera video, and witness statements all happen here. A successful suppression motion can end a case before trial.
Most Arizona criminal cases resolve through a negotiated plea, a diversion program, or dismissal after a successful defense motion. When trial is the right path, Rule 8 sets time limits the State must meet. Our approach is to prepare every case as if it is going to trial, because that preparation is what produces better plea offers.
An effective Arizona criminal defense is built around four questions: Was the State’s evidence lawfully obtained? Can the State prove every element of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt? Are there affirmative defenses or justifications that apply? And what resolution produces the best long-term outcome for the client? Every case we take is worked through this framework.
Fourth Amendment issues are where many Arizona criminal cases break down. Traffic stops without reasonable suspicion, searches beyond the scope of consent, and warrantless home entries without exigent circumstances all create suppression arguments under ARS 13-3925 and the Fourth Amendment.
Chain of custody, lab testing protocols, officer credibility, body-camera gaps, and witness reliability are all challengeable. The State must prove every element of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt — breaking any single element ends the prosecution.
Arizona recognizes self-defense under ARS 13-404, defense of a third person under ARS 13-406, defense of premises and property, necessity, duress, and mistake of fact. When the facts support it, we raise these defenses early and present them to the jury.
Our preferred resolution is always dismissal or diversion. When a plea is the right outcome, we negotiate from the leverage created by trial preparation. Prosecutors move their offers when they see a defense that is ready to go.
Oliverson Law was founded in 2009 by Derek Oliverson, who brings a career spanning law enforcement, prosecution, and the judiciary. He earned his B.S. in Criminal Justice (magna cum laude) from Southern Utah University and his J.D. with a concentration in litigation from Creighton University School of Law. He was admitted to the Arizona Bar in October 2009.
Before founding the firm, Derek served as a police officer in Henderson, Nevada, worked as a criminal prosecutor in Mohave County, Arizona, and presided as a judge at both Page Magistrate Court (overseeing adjudication of 3,000+ cases annually) and Glendale City Court (starting in 2012, overseeing 40,000+ cases annually). He left the bench in 2014 to focus on criminal defense.
Attorney David Tangren is a graduate of the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law where he served as Note and Comment Editor on the International and Comparative Law Journal. Before joining Oliverson Law, David was a prosecutor at the Pima County Attorney’s Office, handling cases from misdemeanors through the felony trial team in the Property and Narcotics Bureau.
Oliverson Law handles drug crime cases throughout Arizona from our main office at 60 E Rio Salado Pkwy, Suite 900, Tempe, AZ 85281. We appear regularly in courts across Maricopa County and Mohave County, including highway interdiction cases from Arizona’s interstate corridors.
Maricopa County Superior Court at 201 W Jefferson St, Phoenix handles all felony cases. Misdemeanor cases are heard in the 26 justice court precincts and municipal courts located throughout the county, including regional facilities in Mesa (222 E Javelina Ave), Surprise (14264 W Tierra Buena Ln), and North Phoenix (18380 N 40th St).
Mohave County Superior Court at 415 E Spring St in Kingman handles felony cases. Our founder Derek Oliverson began his legal career as a prosecutor in Mohave County and maintains direct familiarity with the local courts and procedures.
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Arizona divides controlled substances into three categories: marijuana (ARS 13-3405), dangerous drugs (ARS 13-3407, including methamphetamine, MDMA, psilocybin, LSD), and narcotic drugs (ARS 13-3408, including cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and opioids). Each category has its own statute, its own threshold amounts under ARS 13-3401(36), and its own range of prosecuted conduct.
Yes. ARS 13-901.01 (Proposition 200) mandates probation rather than prison for qualifying first- and second-offense simple drug possession cases. Prop 200 does not apply to possession for sale, transportation, manufacturing, or cases at or above the threshold amounts defined in ARS 13-3401(36).
Under ARS 13-3401(36), each controlled substance has a specified threshold quantity. Cases at or above the threshold are treated more severely and generally do not qualify for Prop 200 probation-only sentencing. A drug crime lawyer will often challenge the weight calculation to keep a case below threshold.
Sometimes, yes. Arizona prosecutors do reduce transportation-for-sale, possession-for-sale, and other elevated-intent charges to simple possession when the defense can break the intent-to-sell element — by showing personal-use quantity, absence of sale paraphernalia, or other facts inconsistent with distribution.
Sometimes. Large-quantity or interstate cases may be referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecuted under 21 U.S.C. § 841. Federal sentencing under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines is typically more severe than state sentencing.
Oliverson Law’s team includes a former judge (Glendale City Court), former prosecutors (Mohave County and Pima County), and a former police officer. That combined experience on the charging, prosecuting, and judicial sides of Arizona criminal cases is what informs our defense strategy. We have been defending Arizona criminal charges since the firm was founded in 2009.
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Derek Oliverson has presided over thousands of cases from the bench, prosecuted criminal cases in Mohave County, and patrolled streets as a police officer. Now he uses that experience to defend you.
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