South Carolina lawmakers are fighting the law to find cannabis smell

Catching a breath of weed shouldn’t be enough for likely reasons, and South Carolina lawmakers want to make sure it doesn’t anymore. That’s the idea behind a bill tabled by a Democratic legislature in South Carolina.

State House Representative Deon Tedder “is pushing for a law where the smell of marijuana alone would not provide law enforcement with reasonable suspicion or likely cause for detention, search, seizure or arrest,” according to local television broadcaster WSPA.

“The smell alone is not enough to be considered an illegal act, as the defendant may have been around someone who has illegally used marijuana or legal hemp and both substances smell the same,” Tedder said, as from the station quoted.

“It’s what I call a fishing expedition,” he continued. “It just allows them to look for things, so I think this bill takes care of that and prevents certain bad actors in the police force from going on a fishing expedition because then they could just look for anything.”

The station reported that the law “would prevent stopping or searching a person or motor vehicle simply because of the smell of marijuana, cannabis or hemp, whether burned or not,” and that it “would not prevent an officer from entering a vehicle to browse “. when someone appears under the influence. “

Tedder, a Charleston Democrat, was motivated to propose the bill because he believes “most of the people who were stopped and searched in South Carolina are African American men who were stopped because an officer allegedly smelled marijuana,” so the station.

The bill could go uphill in the state general assembly, where Republicans hold large majorities in each chamber.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, has spoken out against legalizing recreational pot.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” McMaster said last year. “It’s not helpful.”

South Carolina is currently one of only 14 states that have not legalized medical cannabis, despite McMaster saying it may be amenable to the directive.

“That’s another story, and maybe there are some answers,” he said last summer. “I know medical marijuana helps with many ailments.”

McMaster will run for re-election this year. A potential challenger, Democratic Congressman Joe Cunningham, has made it clear that he wants to legalize.

“This is going to be a turning point in South Carolina,” Cunningham said last year of the state’s legalization of recreational and medicinal cannabis. “There are so many reasons why we have to do this and the time is now.”

“The people are behind it and the politicians have to do it too,” added Cunningham.

He might be right.

A poll published by the Marijuana Policy Project last year found that 72 percent of South Carolina voters are in favor of “admitting patients.” [the state] those with serious illnesses use medical marijuana when their doctors recommend it, “while only 15 percent opposed it.

The lack of a medical cannabis law is not due to a lack of experimentation.

South Carolina lawmakers have been scrambling medical cannabis bills for the past several years. In late 2020, a Republican senator there introduced the South Carolina Compassionate Care Act, which would have legalized medical marijuana for the following qualifying conditions: cancer; Multiple sclerosis; neurological disease; Sickle cell anemia; Glaucoma; PTSD; Autism; Crohn’s disease; Ulcerative colitis; Cachexia; Conditions that cause people to stay home chronically, be chronically nauseated, or have persistent muscle spasms; a chronic disease that requires opiates and incurable diseases that the patient has a year or less to live with.