Drugs Smell of Marijuana Is Insufficient Cause for Search and Arrest
posted by on July 17 at 16:07 PM
It’s quite a week for news about cops smelling pot. The Washington State Supreme Court ruled this morning that an officer was unjustified when he arrested a car passenger after smelling marijuana. On behalf of the unanimous court, Justice Charles W. Johnson wrote:
On April 6, 2006, state trooper Brent Hanger passed a vehicle with very dark, tinted windows…. Hanger detected the “moderate[]” smell of marijuana coming from the car. … He informed both Hurley and Grande they were under arrest based on the odor of marijuana. Hurley and Grande were both handcuffed and searched. The search of Grande revealed a marijuana pipe containing a small amount of marijuana….Each individual possesses the right to privacy, meaning that person has the right to be left alone by police unless there is probable cause based on objective facts that the person is committing a crime. This probable cause requirement is derived from the language of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides, “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause … .” Our state constitution similarly protects our right to privacy in article I, section 7, stating, “[n]o person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law.” …
We hold that the smell of marijuana in the general area where an individual is located is insufficient, without more, to support probable cause for arrest.
Shorter: “Police have to have evidence of who has marijuana,” says Alison Holcomb, director of the Marijuana Education Project for the ACLU of Washington. “They cannot just arrest everybody and sort it out later.”
“Police have to have of who has marijuana,”
i assume the missing word is "evidence." or...what?
@1) Yup, sorry, that somehow got cut out. Now it's fixed. Thanks.
Glad they told the SPD to get back to their primary jobs of finding out who is tagging murals and littering the streets.
Funny thing, saw them bust a cyclist for riding without a helmet today ... at least he wasn't riding a fixie.
The problem is the Federal level alert voter fraud scandal from Arizona.
Don't you remeber the myth that Arizona citzens voted for legalized marijuana and their politicians came back and denigned their vote?
Maybe what we really need is a bigger out door air-ator-mister-scene at our library in downtown Seattle and we would not lose so many good people from the library to new positions in other countries museum networks.
Smell is still sufficient cause to search, and any weed that is found is sufficient cause to arrest whomever it is found on, and/or the car's driver. In practice, people who drive around smoking pot are going to get busted just about as much as before.
i wonder what that does to random DUI check points?
Random DUI checkpoints are still unconstitutional in WA. That's the WA Constitution. DUI checkpoints are still constitutional under federal law.
Very dark tinted windows are an infraction in themselves. It's a hazard. These yahoos should be issued a citation, at the very least. In a perfect world, their vehicle would be confiscated and crushed.
Or, if a Hummer or Escalade, used to make a planter.
cops are such cunts.
Dark-window dudes are worse cunts.
@ 7: ahhh. i'm in FL, where they are legal. especially on the roads leading to jacksonville from the beach.
As a bike-commuter, I HATE the goddamn tinted windows. The cops should impound all of those fuckers. But I think this just affects instant arrests, not impeding searches for the evil plant matter.
The second part to this ruling was that cops are still allowed to search a car if they smell marijuana. My thought is that this will actually lead to more arrests if "i smell pot" can be called any time a cop wants to search a car.
And here you all were thinking that FISA was the worst law on the books. Meanwhile, the states and local municipalities have been eroding your rights, right under your noses without so much of a peep from you.
My roommate and I had the cops show up at our door saying it smelled like weed and said we could either agree to a search or refuse it and he would then remove us from the apartment as the courtesy officer of the complex and not let us back in until he got a search warrant. Is this legal?
MAaron-
I can't comment on your specific situation, but here's some general advice for the future:
The best thing to do in a situation where the cops are at your door is simply this: do not open the door!
If the police have a warrant, they are coming in whether you open the door or not...
In the same vein, if the police are asking you for consent, they don't have cause to search you.
MAaron, please see:
All you haters need to remember, not all tinters do it for looks, some people might actually need them. Might just be a guess, but that's probably why you can attain a prescription for them. I mean, I have mine for looks, but not all of us do that. Looks pretty good too, come to think of it. :D
Read this until it is 100% programmed into the consciousness. It is the answer to any and all "cop/s" (government subjects) respect to each and every SOVERIGN:
"... Each individual possesses the right to privacy, meaning that person has the right to be left alone by police unless there is probable cause based on objective facts that the person is committing a crime. This probable cause requirement is derived from the language of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides, “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause … .” Our state constitution similarly protects our right to privacy in article I, section 7, stating, “[n]o person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law.” …
It's time to remove all the politicians that promote prohibition. How many more lives have to be needlessly devastated or lost? Prohibited drugs are way easier for kids to get than regulated drugs! Prohibition never works it just causes crime and violence. The year alcohol prohibition ended violent crime fell by 65 percent.
On March 22, 1972 the Richard Nixon-appointed, 13-member National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended the decriminalization of marijuana, concluding, "[Marijuana's] relative potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it."
The USA spends 69 billion tax dollars every year on the drug war, builds 900 new prison beds and hires 150 more correction officers every two weeks, arrests someone on a drug charge every 17 seconds, jails more people than any nation and has killed over 100,000 citizens in the drug war.
In 1914 when there were no prohibited drugs 1.3% of our population was addicted to drugs, today 1.3% of our population is still addicted to drugs and there’s way more crime and violence because of the huge profits prohibition generates.
Guns have absolutely nothing to do with using drugs, they have to do with drug prohibition. Al Capone didn’t kill people because he was drunk, he killed people because they got between him and his illegal drug money. The same goes for the drug gangsters of today.
Every time you look at the news you see more and more drug busts involving bigger and bigger quantities of drugs, not less and less. There are much more effective, far less expensive and far less harmful ways to deal with drug use and addiction than the war on drugs.
There’s only been one drug success story in US history, tobacco, by far the most deadly and one of the most addictive drugs. Almost half the users quit because of regulation, accurate information and medical treatment. No one went to jail and no one got killed.
Not one person in history has ever died from marijuana. Many have died from its PROHIBITION.
The right; to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and many others have been denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war.
If you are called for jury duty and you don’t agree with the law the person is charged with, you have the right to vote not guilty, no matter what evidence is produced. Jurors implementing this right in all non-violent drug cases will shut down the ridiculous laws of prohibition. One juror in each case is all it takes. The bottom line is a juror has the right to judge not only the accused person but also the LAW the person is accused of breaking. Don’t be intimidated stick to your position Vote Not Guilty in all non-violent drug cases.
You are not going to get arrested if you contact your elected government representatives and tell them you’re in favor of changing the drug laws, or if you get signatures on a drug policy reform petition, so what are you afraid of? If not now, when… If not you, who? Are you one of the millions of Americans that has become addicted to the drug war? Drug prohibition has been going on for decades with zero positive results and tons of negative results. Are you willing to be part of the solution?
Even the World Health Organization has documented the Failure of U.S. Drug Policies, read the article here, join the mailing list, watch the videos:
Internet Explorer: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html
Awesome, its about time overzealous police had their nails clipped. Only problem now is since we all know most cops carry illegal drugs to plant when needed, they will do just that. Plant a little bag to secure their arrest. Crooked scum cops.
www.FireMe.To/udi
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