Police officers wouldn’t be able to perform warrantless searches of vehicles, homes or other private property based on “the odor of marijuana alone” under a plan introduced in the Missouri House.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Ian Mackey, D-Richmond Heights, follows Missouri’s approval of medical marijuana in 2018 as well as changes elsewhere in how police may gain probable cause for warrantless searches of private property.
“Missourians overwhelmingly voted to legalize marijuana as medicine, so to allow officers to continue to search our citizens simply because they smell medicine is discriminatory and wrong,” Mackey said. “It’s time for Missouri to follow the example of other states on this issue.”
He pointed to a ruling last month in Illinois, where adult-use marijuana is legal, in which a Whiteside County judge said the smell of raw cannabis was not enough for a police officer to have probable cause to search a vehicle.
Mackey said multiple efforts are afoot in Missouri to legalize marijuana for adult use.
“My hope is that our courts in Missouri will weigh in on this issue soon,” Mackey said. “But in the meantime, why wait? It’s time to update our marijuana criminalization statutes to be more reflective of the 21st century.” [Read more at St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
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