Michigan's top court says police can't search cars solely because of marijuana odor

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DETROIT (AP) — The odor of marijuana alone isn't a sufficient reason for police to search a car without a warrant, the Michigan Supreme Court said Wednesday.

In a 5-1 opinion, the court threw out gun charges against a man whose car was searched in Detroit in 2020.

Michigan voters in 2018 legalized the possession and use of small amounts of marijuana by people who are at least 21 years old, though it cannot be used inside a vehicle.

“The smell of marijuana might just as likely indicate that the person is in possession of a legal amount of marijuana, recently used marijuana legally, or was simply in the presence of someone else who used marijuana,” said Justice Megan Cavanagh, writing for the majority.

The smell “no longer constitutes probable cause sufficient to support a search for contraband,” Cavanagh wrote.

Two lower courts had reached the same conclusion.

Elsewhere, the Illinois Supreme Court made a similar ruling last September. That state legalized the possession of marijuana in 2019.

“There are now a myriad of situations where cannabis can be used and possessed, and the smell resulting from that legal use and possession is not indicative of the commission of a criminal offense,” Justice P. Scott Neville Jr. said.

In the Michigan case, the lone dissenter, Justice Brian Zahra, said he favored returning it to a Detroit-area court to determine whether any other evidence supported a search of the car by police.