Missouri Rep to Withdraw Bill Banning Police Searches Over Pot Smell

Missouri Representative Ian Mackey (D-St. Louis) plans to withdraw a bill he pre-filed that would have banned behavior that's already illegal.

Mackey has, for years, attempted to bar law enforcement officers from using the smell of marijuana alone as probable cause for warrantless searches of property. One of the bills he pre-filed for the state's legislative session, House Bill 2132, sought to do just that.

Cannabis advocacy organization  NORML sent out a newsletter encouraging subscribers to send a pre-written letter to their representatives to support it, which 156 people did.  The bill also garnered coverage from regarded cannabis industry news site, Marijuana Moment.

But the measure is entirely moot.

Article 14 of the state constitution already excludes evidence of cannabis from being the sole basis of lawful searches — at least without "specific evidence" indicating the pot has been used for unlawful purposes.

Mackey tells the RFT he's been accused of wasting time and money for refiling his bill, but it was a "silly little mistake."

"I just had a stack of things that I wanted to refile that I filed before, and it happened to be in it," Mackey says.

While there has been some doubt on whether law enforcement agencies will abide by the state constitution, Mackey says there's no need to have a statute with the same language as what's already in the state constitution.

"This was actually an idea that originated in our office, and I'm really happy it ended up in the constitutional amendment," Mackey says.

Many states where cannabis is legal have cracked down on warrantless searches allowed by the perceived smell of cannabis.

Last September, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the odor was not reason enough to search a vehicle. The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a similar law in June after police used "a strong odor of raw marijuana" as probable cause to search a man's car for an unrelated tip.

Such searches have historically contributed to the chasmic difference in pot-related arrests between white and Black Americans, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

In Missouri, the constitutional amendment that makes adult-use cannabis legal also prevents lawful marijuana activities from being the basis for a violation of parole, probation or any type of supervised release.

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