Search and Seizure In Your Home

Question: Can the owner of a household be penalized if a resident has drugs? Can the police do anything to the other members of the household?

It mostly will depend on where the drugs were found in the house. If it was a common area or an area that only the owner had access to, then the owner may be charged. If it was an area that one or more of the residents had access to, then those residents could be charged.

Remember, if you don't let the police in, they can't seize anything. 

When the police seek to search premises in which you have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the area searched (LEPAS, sometimes erroneously referred to as standing) without a warrant, they are presumed without a right to enter except in limited circumstances.  Camara. If the officer seeks entry and does not present a warrant, you are within your rights to refuse him entry.  Wetzel. Refusal to permit entry does not raise mere suspicion of illegality to the level of probable cause. Tompkins. In People v. Hua the California Supreme Court held that even though the officers observed a few individuals smoking marijuana they lacked probable cause to enter the premises and search, because ultimately the crime of smoking marijuana is a non-jailable offense.