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A ballot initiative that Dallas voters overwhelmingly approved this week aims to avoid such escalation. In addition to generally barring local police from arresting people for marijuana possession misdemeanors, Proposition R says "Dallas police shall not consider the odor of marijuana or hemp to constitute probable cause for any search or seizure." That seemingly modest restriction undercuts an excuse that in practice gives cops the discretion to stop, harass, and search pretty much anyone by claiming to smell pot.
Proposition R reflects an ongoing controversy over marijuana odor and probable cause. In states that have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use, some courts have held that the smell of cannabis, whether detected by a human or a police dog, can no longer justify a search, since it does not necessarily constitute evidence of a crime. And while Texas has not legalized marijuana for any use, it has legalized hemp, which comes from the same plant species and cannot be distinguished from marijuana without a laboratory test to measure THC content.
In 2019, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1325, which changed the state's definition of "marihuana" to exclude "hemp, as that term is defined by Section 121.001" of the Texas Agriculture Code. Consistent with federal law, Section 121.001 defines "hemp" as "the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds of the plant and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis."
The difference between legal "hemp" and prohibited "marihuana," in other words, is the THC concentration, which cannot be measured by smell or even by a field test. "Before H.B. 1325," Dallas attorney Jon McCurley notes, "marijuana's distinct and readily recognizable odor often [led] law enforcement to believe that a criminal act was occurring." But after H.B. 1325, "simply detecting the odor of marijuana may not be enough to justify a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment because in order to search or get a warrant, law enforcement officials must have probable cause that a crime has been committed or is about to be committed."
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