The Ohio Supreme Court ruled this Wednesday that police officers can search an automobile and the passengers without a search warrant, if the officer smells marijuana.
The court ruled that the smell of marijuana was sufficient to justify a warrantless search of Christopher Moore’s vehicle after he was stopped for running a red light. The decision establishes what the court called a “plain smell” exception for police officers to conduct a warrantless search.
Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton wrote in the decision, “We…hold that the smell of marijuana, alone, by a person qualified to recognize the odor, is sufficient to establish probable cause to search a motor vehicle, pursuant to the automobile exception to the warrant requirement. There need be no other tangible evidence to justify a warrantless search of a vehicle.”
In a separate opinion Justice Paul E. Pfeifer concurred in part and dissented in part with the decision. “The search of the car here was reasonable because given the smell of marijuana smoke emanating from the car there was probable cause to believe that a crime was occurring or had occurred in the car. The smell of marijuana smoke on a person is entirely different; it provides probable cause that marijuana has been smoked not that the person smoked it. Everyone in a smoke-filled room smells of smoke whether or not they actually smoked.”
“This is one more example of the ‘drug exception’ to the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure,” said Keith Stroup, NORML Executive Director. “It opens the possibility that police will simply fabricate the smell to justify an illegal search.”
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup, NORML Executive Director at (202) 483-5500.
