WHERE'S THERE'S SMOKE ...

Are police forces getting too nosy? An Ontario judge thinks
so.

In a recent case, he ruled that police can't detain people on
suspicion of possession of marijuana just because they reek of fumes.

It seems an Ottawa policeman made the mistake of pulling someone over,
not because he was driving badly, but because the officer's nose
detected the pungent odour normally associated with marijuana wafting
out the car. On closer inspection, the officer did, indeed, find
marijuana and charged the driver with possession.

The driver's lawyer argued that people who were around others smoking
marijuana could be, as it were, tarred with the same brush, since the
smell might cling to their clothes or vehicles. The judge bought this,
and ruled that the police should not be able to use their noses alone
in deciding whether a pot offence has been committed.

Huh? The driver was charged with actually possessing dope, not of
simply smelling of it, so that negates the lawyer's argument. Nobody's
going to get arrested for reeking of someone else's marijuana. (Call
it the Rebagliatti rule.)

A lot of people believe that the police are being handcuffed by
bizarre court decisions of this type. Now it seems they're being given
nose plugs, too.