Smoking Can Be Hazardous to More Than Just Your Health
If a police officer stops your car for, say, speeding and then smells an odor of marijuana when he walks up to your car window, Florida law states that that officer has probable cause to believe that a violation of Florida's narcotic's laws has occurred. When that happens, the officer is legally entitled to search the entire car including the truck and everyone inside the car.
Within the last year or two, I have read many police reports in which arresting officers have relied upon the alleged smell of marijuana in order to search vehicles and its passengers. In fact, it seems that officers are relying upon this reason much more than they have in years past. Is that because more people are smoking marijuana in their cars than used to be the case, or is it because officers know that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to prove that they did not, in fact, smell marijuana when they say they did?
When it comes down to such things as searches based purely on what a officer smelled, I have some concerns. Next they will allow officers to search based on whether a person's eyes looked bloodshot, even though the cause could be from many things. Is it also not possible that some other substance could have a similar smell as marijuana and thus negate the assumption that anything that smells like pot is pot? I don't know myself, but searching a car based on a smell seems drastic.
Also in the cases you have seen, do the officers ask the driver about the smell? or do they just proceed to search? I'm only curious because I can see if the driver admitted there was a "odd smell" then perhaps it would be more understandable. But not by much in my opinion.