You would need to check with the courts involved to find out if a conviction possession of drug paraphernalia will affect a previous plea of prayer for judgment or not. We are not lawyers and do not know your specific situation so we cannot give you legal advice about your prayer for judgment plea and driving record. If the judge / court that granted your PJC had certain conditions, no other tickets, convictions, etc within a certain amount of time then your previous violation may end up being placed on your record.

A PJC is most commonly used in North Carolina so we will give you information on the definition of this offense what penalties you could face for being cited for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Drug paraphernalia is summarily defined as all equipment, products, and materials of any kind used to facilitate planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, manufacturing, converting, processing, preparing, packaging, storing, concealing or used to facilitate injecting, ingesting, inhaling or otherwise introducing into the body, a controlled substance.

The following are examples of drug paraphernalia though this list is not by any means inclusive: scales, balances, sandwich baggies and their corners, roach clips, carburetor pipes, pipes using screens, water pipes, homemade pipes, film canisters, diluent, bongs, sifters, syringes, spoons, chamber pipes, and any other equipment, products or materials that can be linked directly to the usage of controlled substances.

Possession of drug paraphernalia in NC is a misdemeanor criminal offense punishable by imprisonment up to one year and/or fine up to $500.

If you are convicted of this offense we have read that you may be able to get it expunge from your criminal record. North Carolina statutes allow the Judicial Branch to expunge certain criminal convictions in limited circumstances. Someone who pleads guilty or is found guilty of a (1) misdemeanor for possession of certain controlled substances or drug paraphernalia or (2) felony for possessing less than one gram of cocaine, can petition the court to expunge the conviction.

There are certain circumstances that must be in place for a record to be permitted to be expunged so you may want to check with a lawyer to see if this is possible for you. From what we have read you must wait at least 12 months after the conviction before petitioning for your record to be expunged.