MA Marijuana Info | Marijuana Info MA MA Marijuana News and Info
NORML lawyers are urging the Massachusetts Supreme Court to instill some limitations in regard to police conduct when dealing with searches and questioning for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
As it stands now, an officer can question a suspect simply based on the odor of “raw marijuana” due to a judge’s reasoning that “a strong odor of marijuana to the officers training and experience” would imply that there was more than an ounce present. So basically the judge is confident that law enforcement is capable of differentiating between the smell of one ounce of raw marijuana and a gram of raw marijuana.
NORML has since asked the Court to rule that “a police officer may not question a person about possible marijuana in his possession or control based only on the officer’s perception of odor.”
They hope that this will lead to police issuing simple tickets as opposed to people continuing to be detained for personal amounts of marijuana. The case is scheduled for March 3, with hopes that a decision will be made before summer.
