# Can concert promoters legally search you ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 23, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317 "2003-01-23T00:07:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pucky\_Schumer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Pucky\_Schumer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucky_Schumer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/1 "2003-01-23T00:07:58Z")
This column, [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_151.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_151.html), said: > [@](#): > > “A friend of mine was parted from a small pouch of excellent Columbian which was found in his pants pocket–a rather frightening experience.” And: > [@](#): > > “This means that your friend–the one with the Columbian–could have been charged with possession and carted off to the slammer.” My question: Why all the fuss over someone who went to Columbia? (I don’t know how the grad got into the friend’s pocket, but I can see how it’d be a frightening experience.) ---
**Author:** ![Regina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/2 "2003-01-23T00:53:34Z")
Or a little moustachioed llama herder in your pocket. My question is, what do they do with all the drugs they confiscate? ---
**Author:** ![Pucky\_Schumer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Pucky\_Schumer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucky_Schumer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/3 "2003-01-23T00:57:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Regina \* > \*\*Or a little moustachioed llama herder in your pocket. > > My question is, what do they do with all the drugs they confiscate? \*\* My guess is, they do all the drugs the confiscate. ---
**Author:** ![DeepField](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@DeepField](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepField)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/4 "2003-01-23T14:16:57Z")
This question / column seems to confirm what I have long suspected: The so-called war against drugs is something the US government is engaged in (and engaging whole countries in) but the US **people** is not. Colombian (like from COLOMBIA, the country) drugs, I gather, are appreciated by you, but have almost destroyed the country and its people. Isn’t it time the US (both government and people) decide whether to _like_ (and stop fighting) or _hate_ (and stop buying) drugs, so Colombia and other drug producing countries can live happily ever after? ---
**Author:** ![l43452](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@l43452](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/l43452)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/5 "2003-01-23T17:25:04Z")
For the (perhaps) short time that the searchers are in possession of the contraband, are they not breaking the law? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/6 "2003-01-23T22:51:23Z")
> [@](#): > > For the (perhaps) short time that the searchers are in possession of the contraband, are they not breaking the law? I believe that could be refuted by the Doctrine of Necessity. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/7 "2003-01-26T05:23:14Z")
**DeepField** , that is an excellent question for the _Great Debates_ forum. **Regina** , according to the other thread on this topic, sometimes they shred it, mix it with concrete, and pour it in a landfill. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/8 "2003-01-26T16:45:03Z")
What’s the Doctrine of Necessity? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/9 "2003-01-26T21:58:07Z")
The Doctrine of Necessity is the general legal principle that it’s not a crime to do something you can’t avoid (unless you were already doing something criminal or criminally stupid that got you into the situation). For example, it is the Doctrine of Necessity that means that it’s not murder to kill in self-defence (and not, as is generally thought, a vague notion that it’s just OK to kill bad buys). So, if you’re performing a legal search, it’s not illegal to seize illegal contraband, just as long as you don’t do something illegal with it once you have it. I’m not a lawyer, so I may not have it exactly right, but I believe the above argument, or an argument that’s first cousin to it, should hold. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/10 "2003-01-31T13:21:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Regina \* > \*\*My question is, what do they do with all the drugs they confiscate? \*\* Sometimes, they actually burn them at power plants. I personally know of a case where a deviation on a CEMs report explaining why a power plant had a period of very high opacity was due to the Highway Patrol burning a huge batch of marijuana at the plant. They dumped it in the coal yard, and pushed it into the reclaim hopper, and up the conveyor it went, into the furnace… The engineer there I know said everyone joked about getting high, but, like most coal plant exhaust, no one was able to smell a thing. ---
**Author:** ![jsrustad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a698b9/32.png) [@jsrustad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsrustad)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-concert-promoters-legally-search-you/150317/11 "2003-01-31T18:45:05Z")
'Course, there was that flock of terns that flew through the smoke… Not a tern was left unstoned.