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PanzerCubed



Registered: 11/22/12
Posts: 2,285
Loc: Nauru
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Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause 2
#21999376 - 07/26/15 10:58 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause By Mike Adams · Wed Jul 22, 2015
Law enforcement agencies pulling shakedown maneuvers in medical marijuana states are now being forced back to the drawing board to develop an alternative to their once tried-and-true method for establishing probable cause: an officer claiming to smell weed. Several judges, including a few presiding over an Arizona court, have recently ruled that the odor of marijuana no longer gives police the right to initiate a raid.
The Arizona Court of Appeals recently delivered a verdict suggesting that with the passing of the state’s medical marijuana law, the odor of raw or burnt cannabis could no longer be used to determine probable cause. In the decision, Judge Peter Eckerstrom wrote that medical marijuana “is lawful under Arizona law,” and therefore “its scent alone does not disclose whether a crime has occurred.”
Essentially, this means that Arizona police can no longer petition a judge for a search warrant simply because an officer claims to smell weed. Instead, the court declared that law enforcement would need to implement an “odor-plus” policy when investigating potential criminal activity associated with marijuana. Otherwise, Eckestrom wrote, the state is witting violating the constitutional rights of its people.
"Were we to adopt the state's suggestion that scent alone furnishes probable cause of a crime, medical marijuana patients would become second-class citizens, losing their rights to privacy and security, including privacy within their own homes.”
The voices of the arbitrary gods have handed down similar decisions over the past year. In Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2014 that the odor of cannabis, regardless of its chemistry, could not be used as probable cause to search a vehicle. The justices argued that since voters decriminalized small amounts of marijuana in 2008, the odor of weed was no longer substantial enough proof that an individual was breaking the law. Specifically, the judges said that it was impossible for an officer to determine that someone was in possession of more weed than what was legally allotted based solely on the strength of his or her olfaction.
There is increasing contention that regardless of weed’s legal status, using its odor as a measure to determine probable cause should be ruled unconstitutional across the board. A study published several years ago in the journal Law and Human Behavior suggests that even those cops with the most powerful sniffers are unable to determine the presence of marijuana based on odor alone. This, according to the study, is because the scent of cannabis is not unique. Marijuana consists of over 200 different terpinoids that are also found in animals, flowers, and garbage, noted the study authors, making it erroneous for an officer to establish probable cause based only on scent.
However, as more states continue to legalize marijuana, it seems this putrid practice may be on the path to extinction. In the latest ruling, Judge Eckerstrom said that claiming to smell marijuana is “outdated” as the lone criteria in building a case against illegal marijuana possession, as well as impossible to “form a well-founded belief that a criminal offense was committed.”
Unfortunately, this ruling will not act as an absolute shield. It will simply force police to conjure up a secondary excuse before kicking down the door.
Mike Adams writes for stoners and smut enthusiasts in HIGH TIMES, Playboy’s The Smoking Jacket and Hustler Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @adamssoup and on Facebook/mikeadams73.
http://www.hightimes.com/read/arizona-court-marijuana-odor-not-sufficient-probable-cause
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alised
Stranger


Registered: 02/01/15
Posts: 12
Last seen: 8 years, 5 months
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Re: Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause [Re: PanzerCubed]
#22002761 - 07/27/15 02:58 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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PROGRESS!
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Spartan103
Jive psilocybe


Registered: 07/05/15
Posts: 135
Last seen: 4 years, 3 months
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Re: Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause [Re: alised]
#22003917 - 07/27/15 11:00 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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YES
-------------------- It's time to be alarmed, were not being healed were being harmed, we have a common enemy and they're called big pharma!
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PurpleHaze147



Registered: 04/09/13
Posts: 657
Last seen: 6 years, 2 months
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Re: Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause [Re: Spartan103]
#22006774 - 07/27/15 08:39 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Too many of my friends have had their car searched because the cop claimed to smell marijuana, sometimes only to find no weed at all - sucks to get arrested for like an empty bag. Cops always try to get u for some bull shit.
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AEL1911
Stranger



Registered: 09/27/13
Posts: 342
Loc: Japan
Last seen: 6 years, 8 months
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Re: Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause [Re: PurpleHaze147]
#22011403 - 07/28/15 06:48 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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So now the hundreds of thousands of cases where marijuana odor was a cause for further investigation (usually resulting in penal or other legal action) will be reviewed and dismissed?
 Yah right.
Great progress despite the above metioned situation will probably never come to fruition.
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Hitsuzen
Space Cowboy



Registered: 10/17/08
Posts: 399
Loc: Earth
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
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Re: Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause [Re: AEL1911]
#22012585 - 07/28/15 10:50 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Arizona's an odd red state where marijuana has been making steady progress. The last polls I've seen have the majority supporting legalization. Definitely a possibility in 2016.
-------------------- Hate never yet dispelled hate, Only love dispels hate. This is the law, Ancient and inexhaustible. -Buddha
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AEL1911
Stranger



Registered: 09/27/13
Posts: 342
Loc: Japan
Last seen: 6 years, 8 months
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Re: Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause [Re: Hitsuzen]
#22022740 - 07/31/15 12:37 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Hitsuzen said: Arizona's an odd red state where marijuana has been making steady progress. The last polls I've seen have the majority supporting legalization. Definitely a possibility in 2016.
The spread of marijuana is cause of all those Mexicans and their kids!  Isn't that true? All the old conservative white folk blame everything on the brown people and fail to look at their religious ways (among other things) which has kept them dummed down.
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Oeric McKenna
LIFE CAPS


Registered: 06/15/12
Posts: 5,318
Loc: Babylon
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Re: Arizona Court: Marijuana Odor Is Not Sufficient Probable Cause [Re: AEL1911]
#22022759 - 07/31/15 12:44 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Thats why I like to smoke fat joints and fling the roaches in the bushes....that dank aroma with no remaining pipe in the pocket... Oh, and visine...
"His slanty stoner eyes are so....white..."
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