criminal-law prosecutorial-discretion
How can people confess to their drug use in a book without any legal consequences?
<p>Using illegal drugs is illegal.</p>

<p>Yet Obama and Steve Jobs confess that freely. Write a book about it.</p>

<p>Imagine if they confess to murder instead. That would be problematic.</p>

<p>So why?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Not all illegal things are crimes.</p></li>
<li><p>Lack of evidence. They are asked to testify, and they say "what I said in my book was a lie". There is no general law against lying, except when under oath.</p></li>
<li><p>Statute of limitations. Saying "10 years ago I did smoke drugs" means that any offence is no longer prosecutable.</p></li>
<li><p>Lack of details. Which jurisdiction were they in? When did they commit the act, how many acts? You cannot be arrested for being a "bank robber" or a "murderer". You are charged with "robbing Bank X on 123 Fake Street the Thursday 25 April 2018" or "murdering Jim Thio in January 2017". Otherwise the defendant would have a hard time defending himself (how to prove that you have not killed anyone at any time?)</p></li>
<li><p>All of the above combined with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">prosecutorial discretion</a> in the form that any possible prosecutor will most likely determine that bringing charges would be just a waste of time and resources.</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>UPDATE February 2018: Just for the sake of completeness, a reference to the situation of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/12/jacques-cassandri-suspected-mastermind-societe-generale-france-heist-trial" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Jacques Cassandri</a>, who did boast about <a href="https://www.societegenerale.com/en/about-us/our-identity/150-years-of-history/innovation-spirit/the-nice-heist-1976" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a serious crime</a>(a robbery in a Societe Generale vault in 1976) in a book.</p>

<p>Unfortunately for him, he made some kind of mistake/miscalculation and the crime had not yet expired, so he has become an example of someone being prosecuted by confessing a crime in a book.</p>
