MA Court: Smell of Unburnt Marijuana Can’t Justify Vehicle Searches

The Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in Massachusetts, ruled that police officers can no longer cite the smell of unburnt marijuana as justification for searching a person’s car.

Massachusetts voters decriminalized the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana in 2008, and this new ruling is the latest in a series of decisions upholding the rights of citizens as police officers and prosecutors sought loopholes in the voter-approved law.

In 2011, the court ruled that the smell of burnt marijuana could not justify a police search, and in 2013 the court ruled that sharing a joint was not to be considered “distribution” of marijuana, which remains a crime in the state.

The court said in the 2011 ruling that it would be “legally inconsistent” to allow police to make warrantless searches after smelling burning marijuana when citizens had decided through a statewide referendum that law enforcement should “focus their attention elsewhere.’’

The court said it was now extending the same reasoning to cases where the owner has not yet started smoking marijuana. Marijuana, the court acknowledged, generates an aroma, but the odor by itself does not allow police to determine whether a person has possession of more than an ounce of marijuana with them. Possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is not a crime.