In the real world, what the cops would want you to do is turn in that bag of drugs to the cops rather than throw it back on the ground. In Elite, you cannot do that with illegal goods, there's no option to turn them in to authorities....so the OP is right, the game gives him no other option other than to eject it and then punishes him for it. Which does suck.Ever heard of theft by finding?
Further, only your fingerprints could be find on the baggy. Don't you think that would be pretty incriminating?
Either the game should give us the option to turn in illegal goods to authorities or it should not fine us for throwing it back out if accidentally picked up, just mho.