If My Separate Garage Smells, Can They Search The House?

I know that having a house smell like weed gives the police probable cause to search it. There have been a few times that multiple people in my basement have been smoking and it's made me nervous that it could be smelled from the outside.

I have a garage about 20' from the house. If people were to smoke in that garage only, and any odor was clearly emanating from that garage, would the police have probable cause to search my house in addition to the garage?

My thinking is that I can protect myself against possible possession charges by keeping my stash in the house, and only bringing in the garage that which I plan to smoke right then. If they searched the garage, they'd find nothing .

The answer to your question is hard to elucidate. If a cop smells something he believes to be illegal emanating from your garage, he has probable cause to enter. This probable cause to enter does not extend to the house unless the cop states that he observed people moving from the house to the garage (or vice versa).

So, it would be better to leave anything you don't want found in the house. That said, the cop simply has to say he saw someone move between house and garage to have probable cause to search the home. Depending on the state you live in, anything in the home would have to be in plain view. The cop, for example, couldn't go through your shelves and drawers to find a fleeing suspect, but he could look in all your rooms/closets/attics to find someone if they ran to your house from the garage...but if you had something illegal in plain view, the cop would then have probable cause to search further.

The short answer is to not draw attention to your property in any way. Smoking in the garage shouldn't even raise eyebrows. Blasting music from the garage while smoking might. Make sense?

Stoobie said:

So, it would be better to leave anything you don't want found in the house. That said, the cop simply has to say he saw someone move between house and garage to have probable cause to search the home.

Click to expand...

Great reply, thanks! This was exactly my thinking: one could keep everything they don't want the police to find (such as a stash) in the house, where no questionable odor is emanating, and presumably free from the clutches of law enforcement.

Things like not drawing attention, not leaving anything in plain view, etc. are all precautions I advise people to take, but I'm always looking for more ways one engaging in activities such as smoking can better insulate themselves.