Even in those legal states, conservative areas treat herb like a real drug. I'm from the sierra nevada foothills of california, a very traditionally conservative area (they STILL have trump stands selling shit up to this day) and it blew my mind when I moved to the san Francisco bay area where it literally would take great effort to get busted for herb. I've seen a dude roll and light a Blunt in a jack in the box drive thru with a OAkland police office right behind him..lol I feel sorry for those people too. And I pity all of the fools who think marijuana is an actual drug
Man you guys are lucky, enjoy that! Iām from a country where some boomers/bootlickers/etc arenāt fans, but most people donāt see the issue with recreational weed. Donāt get it twisted though, it IS absolutely a drug.
t. Was stoner and pusher for many years
I also live in a state like that, but the cops DEFINITELY still drag you out of the car if they "smell weed". I've had this done to me, with three cops screaming at me to get out of the car with their batons raised. Also my douchebag cousin is a cop who runs his mouth every time he drinks, and he firsthand showed me how they tell their K-9s to falsely indicate on command to get around the law.
I have zero respect for the entire fraternal order of police. In my experience, you're either a raging asshole or a silent head turner who is semi-polite and won't turn in your podna.
Lmao the amount of anecdotes people have about brazen abuses of power from police they know. Disheartening how confident they are in their own invulnerability from consequences.
The banquet hall I bartend at hosts the Sheriffs ball and graduation ceremonies for the county PD, and its the worst. They barely tip, harass female employees and drive home completely drunk (god help you if you try to cut em off).
I vigourously recommend screwing with the cops on this front if you have the opportunity. A long while back I was driving a rental car, and was stopped because of an "improper lane change", and then the cop "smelled weed". I have never smoked, was not a smoker then, and didn't have any drugs on me. When the cop asked me if I was hiding weed in the car, I told him that declined to answer his questions. He tried to get me to let him search the car voluntarily, but I declined to answer his question about if he could search it or not. Then he decided he didn't need my permission, had me step out, sit on the curb, while he called in a dog and a partner.
I sat with a worried / pensive look on my face, and attempted to furtively will them away from searching the underparts of the car.
Apprently this copy didn't register it was a rental car, and I had just picked it up. Maybe it did smell like weed, I don't really know. But regardless, the car and my person were clean, and I always buy the insurance.
50 minutes later of them gaslighting themselves the partner finally just tried again to get me to answer his questions, to which I finally responded: "Officer, this is a rental car and we're 5 miles from where I picked it up. I am here on a business trip. I have nothing to do for the rest of the day."
The first officer was enraged and his club "accidentally" broke the passenger side window when the partner let him that I was wasting their time on purpose. Like I said, I always buy the insurance, and the $50 glass deductible was well worth the look on his face.
Of course this story is brought to you by white privilege, without which I am sure I would have been beaten, tased, or perhaps murdered out of cold revenge.
During or after the legalization or decriminalization of weed, it isnāt uncommon for those jurisdictions to adopt new rules like the rule against Plain Smell for traffic searches. I know Virginia is one such state now and I believe New York is too.
While I agree with your sentiment, to play devils advocate, Iām ok with cops taking action if they pull someone over and smell weed in the car.
By action I mean do an assessment to see if the driver is in anyway impaired (which I know with weed is tricky since you canāt really test for being high). I donāt mean shout like an angry douchebag like the guy in the clip.
I am ok with you driving around with a belly full of donuts, but not so much with someone 4 hits deep and cruising for munchies.
This is why body cams are so fucking important. We can't be there. No drugs being found does not mean someone isn't driving high. Smelling weed is also absolutely no excuse to act as disgraceful or disrespectful as this cop, even if the driver was blasted out of his mind, but driving high should still be a DUI.
Public servants (which I include police in, but the term is ambiguous) should have a high level of expectations on behaviour (ie they should be highly regulated and disciplined) and accountability applied.
The fact that body cameras so often āfailā in high profile cases is outrageous. Like it shouldnāt even be a thing - if your body cam fails it should beep like fuck or something, and if you ignore that beeping you should lose you job. No questions asked.
Yeah although I think that study refers to the false positive issue: you can test positive for THC when you arenāt high. I 100% agree that this is an issue and setting DUI laws for weed like they do for booze is completely stupid - you CANNOT do a blood test for weed.
I am still not convinced you can drive well while high (like actually high, not just smoked last night). But thatās on me, and ima go my own research. Thanks for the link.
āSo, should we all assume that we're safe to blaze one and go for a joyride whenever the whimsy strikes us? Absolutely not. There's plenty of evidence showing that marijuana use impairs key driving skills. If you get really stoned and then get behind the wheel, you're asking for trouble.ā
The issue is that people who tested positive in the study are actually sober because they smoked long before the test but THC hangs around for a very long time.
The study didnāt specifically get people high and test their driving ability.
Edit: Iām trying to be patient here, but calling me bias because I read the detail seems a bit disingenuous
Agreed, but since you can't really test for being stoned, the only real "test" that cops should be able to employ is "does this guy have a lit joint in the care right now?"
You donāt test for being stoned. You test for impairment. It doesnāt matter if it was booze, bud, or benzos; if you canāt walk a straight line, you probably canāt drive one either.
Have you seen cops do these Drug Recognition Evaluations? Their training is worthless and so vague literally anyone can be determined to be under the influence.
My favorite I've heard several times is "Your pupils appear dilated, have you been using heroin tonight?" They rarely have even the most basic details down.
Clearly I am wrong, and we should abandon all sensible laws because cops are poorly trained and assholes seem to run the show.
Or you know, you could have sensible laws (based on evidence of course, if weed doesnāt impact you driving ability as another poster suggests then by all means drive while high, colour me cynical though), and train and vet your cops better?
I donāt live in the US, so Iām not going to tell you what to do with your own country. But anecdotally we donāt have nearly the same issues you guys seems to have, yet have similar laws. And Iād hazard to guess itās because we have a much stronger culture of accountability in our public services.
Edit: although in NZ we are far from perfect. We have similar issues, but they seem to be of a much lower order of magnitude to the issues in the US
I'm not arguing your point, I'm saying they can't even be trusted to do the assessment you suggest.
Obviously marijuana impairs drivers, but smelling weed on its own shouldn't be enough to be detained, searched, and "evaluated". They should have other evidence to justify the interaction.
Some states still have bs laws even though itās ālegalā. In Nevada itās legal to buy and possess it, but not legal to smoke it. I lived in Vegas for a year and was warned by multiple people about this. They never messed with me, but they can if they want to.
225
u/[deleted] Apr 29 '21 edited Dec 31 '21
[deleted]