What is often missed by the general public, that is until some unfortunate victimless event occurs concerning you, is how to deal with a police encounter. While I would begin by encouraging you to be courteous and respectful, after all they are only following orders from our government who never pass bad laws like marijuana prohibition, it is important to know the information in the infographic by Online-Paralegal-Programs.com- a handy aid to your rights.
If you have yet to make a victimless crime mistake (unlike me and my anchor light) you need to remember 3 very important things about any encounter:
1) Police are professional witnesses. This is a great advantage when they are helping a victim gather information necessary for a prosecution such as a burglary or assault, but when it comes to victimless crimes they have likely debriefed with the prosecutor on multiple cases before yours to ensure you don't slip away like the last one and know exactly how to present a winning case to the judge.
Rule 1- Be polite, ask often if you are free to leave, keep your mouth shut, and don't try and argue with the police.
2) Police know the laws they can apply and have discretion of which ones they start piling on to your record. This is often done because they know you will likely be willing to plea down the four charges to the two that really count and the prosecutor won't have to waste the day in court.
Rule 2- Begin recording audio and video of the encounter well before the officer arrives. You have every right to record your encounter and as they apply ticket after ticket it will only bolster your case to the judge that the police office was simply on a roll. If you have had anything to drink it would be helpful to recite the alphabet to avoid the "slurred speech" probable cause. Go to court and spend as much time defending yourself as possible.
3) Never lie or give permission for a search.
Rule 3- The Fourth Amendment is your best tool.
My experience in the end is that prosecutors hate to actually try these victimless crime cases. So be sure you arrive to the court date early, speak slowly, have lot's of questions prepared, play the entire video from start to finish, and make tickets for victimless crimes as expensive for the system as possible. It's the only way our law enforcement and prosecutors will think twice the next time around.
Me, I really wish I would have learned the lesson to record the event sooner.