If medical marihuana is legal, why does the odor of marihuana permit police to immediately enter and search a car?

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to take up the issue of whether the smell of marihuana can justify police entering and searching a car now that medical marihuana is legal. A Lehigh County Judge had suppressed evidence (a gun) found pursuant to such a search. The Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed that holding on the theory that the Judge did not consider other factors besides the legality medical marihuana. If recent trends hold, we believe the Supreme Court will find that medical marihuana changes the game. Police can no longer search cars based merely upon the smell of marihuana, especially if they don’t know whether someone in the car or who owns or uses the car might have a medical marihuana card. It will probably take a long time for the Court to review and resolve this issue – it could very well be next year before this case is decided. In the meantime it is essential that anyone subjected to one of these searches properly pleads the issue in a suppression motion to preserve it. We can help those who don’t know how.