On Tuesday, a Maryland House of Delegates Committee considered a Republican led bill that would allow law enforcement officers to search and stop vehicles if they smell marijuana. Democrats, on the other hand, strongly opposed the proposal. They noted that police have historically stopped people of color disproportionately.
The panel took no action on HB 320 which was first introduced by supporters in November. Instead, members spent over 30 minutes debating and listening to testimony from civil rights and law enforcement advocates.
Maryland has changed its policies regarding traffic stops and law enforcement in response to the legalization of cannabis that was implemented last year. A separate law made it illegal for police officers to stop a car solely based on the smell of marijuana, whether burned or not.
At the House Judiciary Committee Hearing, supporters of the new bill to undo that policy described the current law as “a blanket get out of jail free card”.
Del. Jesse Pippy, the main sponsor of the legislation (R), is the person who has been working on it. Everyone on this committee is aware that driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or other impeding items in Maryland remains illegal.
This measure also allows evidence collected during traffic stops to be admitted in court. The law enforcement officials said that people who smelled like marijuana may be linked to illegal firearms or illicit drugs such as fentanyl.
Marot Williamson, Assistant State’s attorney for Anne Arundel county said: “In my experience as an investigator, the smell of cannabis can lead to the detection of firearms or other controlled dangerous drugs such as fentanyl.” The passage of HB 320 will return this valuable investigative tool to the law enforcement community and help them remove these deadly and undetected items from our streets.
Scott Shellenberger is the state’s lawyer for Baltimore County.
Shellenberger stated that “the simple truth is, unfortunately, people with a little bit of drug–or several drugs–inside their car have guns.” “I believe HB 320 to be a common-sense approach, and I urge a positive report.”
But Del. Frank Conaway, a Democrat, questioned at one time the motives of the bill. He noted that the fiscal note of the measure acknowledges Maryland’s history of disproportionately applying drug laws to Black residents.
Conaway stated that “in previous years we noticed there was a group of people who were treated differently from another group.” We’re not sure why you would want to do this again.
Del. N. Scott Phillips, a Democrat from Washington D.C., said he was concerned that the Bill “would leave too much judgement to the officer.”
Some questioned the necessity of the bill. They noted that police officers can still stop motorists for driving recklessly or swerving. Searches may also be justified when an officer observes clear evidence that a violation has occurred, such as a driver smoking marijuana in their car.
Del. “Usually, it’s the first observation of the erratic or speeding driving that makes you stop,” he said. Charlotte Crutchfield, a Democrat who was the main sponsor of HB 1071 last year that set the law in place. “I want to make it clear: You can stop a drunk driver, okay?”
Del. Christopher Eric Bouchet said that the lack of a clear test for drivers to determine if they are impaired by cannabis or have recently used it is one of the biggest problems.
He asked: “If we stop people for the smell, how can we tell if they are under the influence of drugs and prosecute them?”
Supporters say that drug recognition experts, as well as some visible signs of impairment, can help to build a strong argument. However they acknowledge that there is no approved test which can determine impairment definitively.
Del. Lauren Arikan (R), said she smells marijuana every time she drives through a tunnel to get into the Statehouse.
She called the situation “totally ridiculous” and said that she could have seen someone smoking a joint, or it could be a hand rolled cigarette.
Arikan went on to say, “Every time I enter the tunnel it smells like pot.” “I get stuck in traffic because these whack-jobs are smoking in the flippin’ tunnel. This is a real problem. And I don’t want you to wait until someone is swerving into the opposite lane. I want to have a cop with me in the tunnel asking, “Who is hotboxing this freaking tunnel?” ‘”
Several other witnesses who spoke at the hearing were against the measure.
Tia Holmes spoke for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender which is opposed to the bill.
NaShona KESS, executive director of Maryland NAACP said that the proposal “means law enforcement officers will be able to simply say they believe there is something rotten in the air.”
Kess asked, “Can you imagine a system where you could be stopped by someone just because you looked suspicious?” “We’ve tried that system in the past, but it didn’t work. It won’t work. “It cannot continue to be a thing that we live in community”
Yanet Amanuel is the public policy director at ACLU of Maryland. She said that police claims about how current laws hinder their investigations of drunk driving are “simply untrue.”
Amanuel explained that “the law is explicit in that the officer can consider the odor of pot as part of a totality of circumstances” to support his observations of suspected impairment. The odor alone cannot justify a traffic stop for driving under the influence. This is because the odor does not necessarily indicate impairment.
She argued that police and state’s attorney do not have real data to back up their claims. We know this because, in fact, we filed a public request for the alleged data of gun seizures obtained by odor searches. Their officers reported that they did not track these data.
Flannery Galagher, also a legal fellow with the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore School of Law, testified in opposition.
“House Bill 32 would lead to a return of warrantless, high discretion, low suspicion stops, which are ripe with abuse and racial profile. Gallagher stated that the General Assembly did it right when it passed House Bill 1071, last year. What this body knew back then is still true. In a national study that analyzed over 100 million vehicle stop, it was found that Black drivers were disproportionately searched and stopped by law enforcement in comparison to white drivers. This is despite the fact that evidence shows that white drivers have a higher likelihood of being found with contraband.
Maryland legislators are considering legislation this session that would protect employees from being penalized if they use marijuana off-duty, and would require employers to prove that an employee is impaired on the job before they can fire them or take any other adverse action.
Recently, House committees have also taken up two bills that would create task forces for the study of psychedelics and decriminalization.
The Senate passed a bill last week to protect the gun rights of medical marijuana patients in accordance with state law. It was then sent to the House of Delegates. The measure, if passed, would allow registered medical cannabis patients the right to own, carry and buy firearms in Maryland, even though federal law still prohibits them from doing so.
In recent years, lawmakers have attempted to address the issue of cannabis smell as probable cause in various states. However, they did not always do so in the same manner. In 2020, a Virginia law to prevent police from searching or seizing property solely based on the smell marijuana was passed. Illinois, Mississippi, and other legislators have also pursued reforms of this nature.
In various states, courts have also taken a position on this issue. In Minnesota, the state Supreme Court decided in September that, by itself, the odor of pot did not constitute probable cause for officers to search cars. In June , the New Jersey Supreme Court made a similar decision.
Equity Advocates “Correct the Record” On Biden’s Marijuana Acts And Shortcomings of Anticipated Schedule II Move
The post Maryland Democrats Pushback Against GOP Bill to Allow Police To Search Vehicles Due To Marijuana Odor first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
