part 2 of 4
2. Leave that Shi … Stuff at Home
The typical drug case that I encounter starts off with a traffic stop. The officer approaches the car, smells marijuana, the car is searched and marijuana is found. Now, whole books have been written about traffic stops, whether or not smell is admissible evidence, consent to search, and warrantless searches. I don’t care about any of those issues for our purposes here, because those books would never had been written if the drugs (typically marijuana) had never been in the car in the first place.
I think it’s a safe bet to say that at least 95% of my Possession of Marijuana (POM) clients were arrested after pot (the kids are still calling it that, right?) was found in their car or on them after a traffic stop. Why are you driving around with pot in your car? Granted, maybe you just got it and you’re taking it home. But I have never had that happen to a client in fourteen years of practice. Never. So that means they consciously put it in their car.
“But I forgot it was there!” Now, that’s just stupid (see Rule #0). “My friend left it there.” Then your friend needs to see Rule #0. “They had no right to search my car!” You may be correct, but you’re still going to have to go through the hassle of the criminal process, aren’t you? Wouldn’t it be better to avoid having to deal with that in the first place? And let’s talk about smell. That’s usually how the cop knows to ask about it in the first place. The nose is an amazing thing. Not only can it detect odors, it (or your brain, I’m not a doctor) can stop detecting odors that it has grown used to. So even though you may not be able to smell it, a cop who hasn’t been sitting in a car with pot all day/week (the supervisors usually frown upon that) can easily smell it even when it is cleverly hidden under a Whataburger cup.
There is a much higher burden for officers to get into and/or search your home than there is for them to search your car. It’s not an impossible burden, it’s just much less likely to happen. If you are minding your own business at home and not causing any other trouble (see Rule #0), you are unlikely to ever have an officer in your home and finding your stash.
The typical drug case that I encounter starts off with a traffic stop. The officer approaches the car, smells marijuana, the car is searched and marijuana is found. Now, whole books have been written about traffic stops, whether or not smell is admissible evidence, consent to search, and warrantless searches. I don’t care about any of those issues for our purposes here, because those books would never had been written if the drugs (typically marijuana) had never been in the car in the first place.
I think it’s a safe bet to say that at least 95% of my Possession of Marijuana (POM) clients were arrested after pot (the kids are still calling it that, right?) was found in their car or on them after a traffic stop. Why are you driving around with pot in your car? Granted, maybe you just got it and you’re taking it home. But I have never had that happen to a client in fourteen years of practice. Never. So that means they consciously put it in their car.
“But I forgot it was there!” Now, that’s just stupid (see Rule #0). “My friend left it there.” Then your friend needs to see Rule #0. “They had no right to search my car!” You may be correct, but you’re still going to have to go through the hassle of the criminal process, aren’t you? Wouldn’t it be better to avoid having to deal with that in the first place? And let’s talk about smell. That’s usually how the cop knows to ask about it in the first place. The nose is an amazing thing. Not only can it detect odors, it (or your brain, I’m not a doctor) can stop detecting odors that it has grown used to. So even though you may not be able to smell it, a cop who hasn’t been sitting in a car with pot all day/week (the supervisors usually frown upon that) can easily smell it even when it is cleverly hidden under a Whataburger cup.
There is a much higher burden for officers to get into and/or search your home than there is for them to search your car. It’s not an impossible burden, it’s just much less likely to happen. If you are minding your own business at home and not causing any other trouble (see Rule #0), you are unlikely to ever have an officer in your home and finding your stash.
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