Smoking Marijuana is NOT allowed in public. If you feel the need to medicate there are plenty of ways to do without lighting up. Make yourself some edibles then you won't have to worry. Do you really want the general public to start viewing medical users as those potheads, because while they are walking down the street with their kids they have to walk through a cloud of cannabis smoke. I'm a lifetime smoker with three kids and I personally don't want to take my kids someplace and have to worry about. Just take the keys out of your ignition and smoke in your car before you go out in public. Even before Medical Marijuana the police could not legally search your car from the smell of marijuana.
BURNT MARIJUANA SMELL NO LONGER PROBABLE CAUSE
BY
Atty. John M. (Jack) Collins, General Counsel
Since the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is not a criminal offense, the
odor of burnt marijuana is no longer enough for police officers to order a person from
their car. That is the ruling in the April 19
th
SJC case of Com. v. Cruz.
"Without at least some other additional fact to bolster a reasonable suspicion of criminal
activity, the odor of burnt marijuana alone cannot reasonably provide suspicion of
criminal activity to justify an exit order," the court ruled in a 5-1 decision written by Chief
Justice Roderick Ireland. Because the exit order issued to the defendant cannot be
justified on any of the three permissible bases outlined in the Courts ruling, the SJC
held that the defendant's incriminating response to the police officers query whether he
had "anything on his person," and the subsequent seizure of the crack cocaine itself
must be suppressed.
Given the courts conclusion that G.L. c. 94C, §§ 32L-32N, has changed the status of
possessing one ounce or less of marijuana from a crime to a civil violation, without at
least some other additional fact to bolster a reasonable suspicion of actual criminal
activity, the odor of burnt marijuana alone cannot reasonably provide suspicion of
criminal activity to justify an exit order.
In contrast, therefore, to the requirement that criminality be suspected to effectuate an
exit order under the reasonable suspicion standard, a warrantless search of an
automobile may be based on probable cause that contraband is present. The SJC has
held that the odor of burnt marijuana is sufficient to believe that there is contraband in
the car. See Commonwealth v. Garden, 451 Mass. 43, 47 (200
. See also
Commonwealth v. Hason, 387 Mass. 169, 174 (1982), and cases cited ("Probable
cause requires more than mere suspicion but something less than evidence sufficient to
warrant a conviction").
In the Cruz case, the Commonwealth argued, it follows then, that if the police have
probable cause to believe that contraband, i.e., any amount of marijuana, exists in the
car, the police may then validly conduct a warrantless search (and order any
passengers out of the car to facilitate that search). While at least one court has adopted
this reasoning, the SJC said that it not persuaded. The Court noted that the standard
used to determine the validity of a warrantless search is the same as that used by a
magistrate considering the application for a search warrant. In Cruz, however, no facts
were articulated to support probable cause to believe that a criminal amount of
contraband was present in the car. The SJC concluded, therefore, that in this set of
circumstances a magistrate would not, and could not, issue a search warrant. Because the standard for obtaining a search warrant to search the car could not be met, the
Court concluded that it was unreasonable for the police to order the defendant out of the
car in order to facilitate a warrantless search of the car for criminal contraband under
the automobile exception.
Justice Judith A. Cowin dissented.
In this case, the officers detection of the odor of marijuana provided a basis for a
reasonable suspicion that the individuals in the vehicle might be involved in the
commission of a crime, she asserted. Because that suspicion was reasonable, the
officers did not violate the defendants rights by inquiring further and by requiring him to
exit the vehicle.
She wrote that up until today, state law has allowed police to perform a warrantless
search if they smelled burnt marijuana in a car.
"Even though possession of a small amount of marijuana is now no longer criminal, it
may serve as the basis for a reasonable suspicion that activities involving marijuana,
that are indeed criminal, are underway," she wrote.
"Our case law is clear that 'the odor of marijuana is sufficiently distinctive that it alone
can supply probable cause to believe that marijuana is nearby.' The advent of
decriminalization certainly has had no effect on the distinctiveness of marijuana's odor.
Nor has decriminalization affected the criminal status of numerous other activities
involving marijuana," Cowin wrote.
. Your right though Mr, joints ftw. goo ahead take my roach , have fun smoking that roach with your wife back home 
