Of course, being arrested for anything is never a good thing. But, is sometimes being arrested for drug paraphernalia can provide a partial defense to more serious charges.

For example, is not uncommon for people to be charged with possession of marijuana for other than personal use. Let's say that the police execute a search warrant and find that a person has four bags of marijuana as well as some rolling papers, and a bong. Because the person has four bags of marijuana, the police assume the marijuana is not for his own personal use; they charge him with felony possession of marijuana also known as "possession for other than personal use." The police also charge this person with possession of drug paraphernalia because he has rolling papers, scales, and a bong.

Because of the drug paraphernalia, his lawyer can now argue at trial that the paraphernalia is evidence that the accused person was using the marijuana himself; after all, the purpose of the paraphernalia is to aid in the ingestion of marijuana. His lawyer argues that this paraphernalia shows that he was actually using these drugs himself and it was therefore for his own personal use.