Texas Marijuana laws.  In paticular: is the presence of marijuana odor
considered "reasonable suspicion" enough for the police to search your
car?

Dear SMK in TX, 

The answer is yes. See, for example: 

Freeman v. State, 62 S.W.3d 883 (Tex. App. ? Texarkana 2001). - " The
odor of marijuana created a reasonable suspicion that the defendant
was engaged in criminal conduct, and that justified further
detention." (SOURCE: "DRIVER OF A RENTAL CAR LACKS STANDING TO CONTEST
VEHICLE SEARCH WHERE HE IS NOT LISTED ON RENTAL AGREEMENT.", Cuff 'N
Stuff, The Internal Newsletter of the Wise County Sheriff's
Department, 28 June 2002,
<http://www.sheriff.co.wise.tx.us/cuffnstuff/06-28-02.htm#Legal
Issues>).

Read other cases: 
NAPWDA
Public School K9 Narcotic Sniffs!
<http://www.napwda.com/tips/index.phtml?id=33> 

I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by smkintx-ga on 31 May 2005 11:27 PDT

It does if that's the answer.  I probably should have clarified in the
first place.  I was told by someone in late 2003 or early 2004 that
there was a recent court case that made it to the Texas Supreme Court
that said that an officer noticing the odor of marijuana wasn't
sufficient evidence to search a suspects car.  The examples you
provided me with pertained to 2002 and dealt with canines.  If nothing
else can be found about latter court cases then that will satisfy my
question.  I probably should have worded my question better in the
first place.  I appriciate your help and information.

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 01 Jun 2005 01:48 PDT

Dear SMK, 

Well, without your request for clarification I wouldn't have known
that this is what you meant. There was such a case: Ian Steelman and
his father appealed in 2002 to the Texas Court of Appeals, and claimed
that the search in their house was unjustified. However, there are few
important details you should notice in this case. Although it is a
ground-breaking case, the interpretation was actually based on the
fact that Steelman closed the door behind him, and that the officers
forced themsleves in (didn't let him shut the door) and then arrested
him and his father. This may not stand, for example, in cases of
marijuana odor in a car or a public place.

Read further: 
------------
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys , "Stop-and-Sniff Not Probable Cause for Pot
Arrest", Law.com, 28 October 2002,
<http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1032128832644>

Opinions to the case at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
<http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/opinions/102200a.htm> 

FindLaw
Opinion by Judge Cochran, J., filed a concurring opinion, joined by
Meyers and Johnson, J.J.
<http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=tx&vol=app/102200c&invol=1>:
" I do not agree that this standard is appropriate in the present
situation. This case is not about whether the odor of burning
marijuana gives police officers the right to temporarily detain
someone to investigate whether that person (2) Numerous Texas cases
have addressed that issue. (3) As the court of appeals explicitly
stated, that situation is clearly distinguished from the present one."

Janet Elliott, "JUDGES THROW OUT ODOR-BASED DRUG BUST", Houston
Chronicle, as quoted in Online Pot.com
<http://www.onlinepot.org/legal/noodor.htm>

Associated Press, "Odor of Pot Isn't Cause for Search Court
Concludes", Austin American-Statesman (TX), Friday, October 25, 2002,
quoted in Marijuana.org,
<http://www.marijuana.org/austinamerican10-25-02.htm>.

Thank you very much for that.  I'm sure that's the court case the
person was refering to when they told me about it.  Sorry that I did
not clarify in the first place.  I think that was worth more than just
two dollars and I appriciate your effort.

Why shouldn't it be?  Where there's smoke, there's fire, and it's
apparently against the law to be driving under the influence.  If the
cops smell alcohol, can't they search for open bottles/cans?

http://www.healthcenter.unt.edu/hrc/pdf/Alcohol%20and%20Drug%20Use%20Penalties.pdf

Thank you for the rating and the tip!