Good news, east coast reefers. If you live in Massachusetts and your car reeks of pot, you're off the hook. On Tuesday the state's highest court ruled that the odor of burnt marijuana was not enough for officials to order an individual to leave their car. 

Massachusetts decriminalized small amounts of marijuana in 2008. You're now legally permitted to carry less than an ounce of the herb without anyone bothering you about it. Since smoking less than an ounce smells about the same as smoking any amount of weed, the court decided it should be illegal to allow warantless searches of vehicles based on stench alone. If cops can't prove that an illegal amount of marijuana was smoked, they can't justify a search of your car. 

Opponents of the ruling threw out the typical "slippery slope" defense. The logic against a ruling like this seems to be that if you've been smoking pot in your car--even an amount that won't get you arrested anymore--you must also be engaging all sorts of criminal activity that would warrant a thorough investigation of your vehicle. The fact that some people consider the scent of marijuana to be "reasonable suspicion" for a variety of wrongdoings boggles my mind. In my experience, the only wrongdoing that usually goes along with car-blazing involves pummelling one's bowels with too much Taco Bell at one in the morning. Diarrhea-inducing, maybe, but not illegal. 

The ruling seems like a sensible step in the right direction. These days, it seems like the slightest "suspicion" entitles cops to turn into the brutal enforcers of some dystopian state. Throwing people in jail--lots and lots of people--for something like marijuana use doesn't seem to be a good use of our penal system. I'm glad that Massachusetts is taking the steps necessary to make sure the drug is decriminalized in practice as well as on the books. And with perfect timing, too--I wonder if the courts intended to celebrate 4/20. 

(via Boston.com)

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