Two local police chiefs are worried that a bill introduced by state Sen. Rachel Ventura (D-Joliet) could hamper officers in the field dealing with impaired drivers.
Ventura says the bill to remove cannabis odor as a probable cause for police to search a vehicle protects the constitutional rights of drivers who have been pulled over in a traffic stop.
The Illinois Senate Criminal Law Committee recently advanced Senate Bill 42, which seeks to prohibit police from searching vehicles solely based on the smell of cannabis—whether raw or burnt—if the occupants are at least 21 years old.
There have been two readings. A third is needed before a vote can be taken.
The bill also aims to remove the requirement for cannabis to be stored in odor-proof containers, according to legislative records.
After two Supreme Court rulings on the odor of raw cannabis and burned cannabis, Ventura sought to clarify things.
The “contradictory” rulings “put a huge burden on law enforcement to not only know the difference between raw and burned but also the smell of hemp,” she said.
“Cannabis does need to be out of the arm’s reach of the driver. It does need to be in child-resistant packaging. All of that stays the same. But this bill would remove the word odorless partly because most of the packaging is not 100 percent odorless,” she said.
“We want to make sure people’s constitutional rights are being upheld and that we are not creating a burden for law enforcement,” Ventura said.
Bridgeview Police Chief Ricardo Mancha isn’t sure the bill is a good idea.
“If you’re driving, it creates a potential for problems. Impairment. How much impairment is one of those things they’re still trying to iron out as far as testing,” Mancha said.
If marijuana is smelled in a traffic stop, Mancha thinks police should be able to search for the source if a driver, for example, had been driving in an erratic fashion.
“If you’re smelling it, you have probable cause to question more to find out what’s going on,” Mancha said. “It warrants further investigation.”
Under her bill, Ventura said if burned marijuana is smelled, an officer can’t search on the smell alone, but mitigating circumstances like improper lane usage, for example, “could be used to determine probable cause.”
“Our law simply says using odor by itself is not enough for probable cause. It may be enough to start the sobriety testing,” she said.
Police officers are already hampered in one regard in that unlike alcohol there’s no field test to administer for marijuana use, Mancha said.
“It stays in our system four to six weeks after you smoke, if you do it regularly,” he added. “Does it affect you if it’s still in your system? Way above my pay grade.”
Countryside Police Chief Paul Klimek said, “I don’t think (the bill) is a very good idea. I would be opposed to that.”
“If I smell alcohol coming from the inside of a car, it’s illegal to transport alcohol. I would follow the lines of common sense here. It would be illegal to transport cannabis that way,” he said.
An officer is permitted to search for an open bottle if he or she smells alcohol in a vehicle that is pulled over, he said. The same should apply to marijuana, Klimek said.
Right now, officers can search for marijuana if they smell it, he said, citing “common sense.”
“We’ll see how they vote on it in Springfield,” Klimek added.
Ventura said police generally aren’t smelling marijuana when they initiate a traffic stop, such as running a stop sign or swerving on a road.
“To be clear, the Supreme Court ruling said burnt cannabis can’t be used for probable cause alone. It was only raw cannabis because the law requires odorless packaging,” Ventura said.
A recent case brought the topic to light.
Kavon L. Smothers, 23, of Riverdale, was arrested on Jan. 30 in Orland Park and charged with unlawful use of a weapon and three other offenses after police determined the smell of marijuana was probable cause to search his vehicle and they found a firearm, authorities said.
According to police, officers initiated the traffic stop after noticing the vehicle did not have a front registration plate and the driver was not wearing a seatbelt.
Officers reported detecting the odor of cannabis and conducted a search, which they said led to the discovery of a Glock handgun with an extended magazine.
Police said Smothers also had an active warrant for a weapons violation. He is being held at Cook County Jail. His next court case is scheduled for March 12 at the Bridgeview Courthouse. He also has a court date of March 26 for the unrelated weapons charge at the Criminal Courts Building in Chicago.
The cannabis-based probable cause search of Smothers’ car based on the smell of marijuana was made legal by a Dec. 5, 2024, ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court, which allows police officers to search a vehicle if they detect the odor of raw cannabis.
The court ruled that while cannabis possession is legal in Illinois, it must be transported in a sealed, odor-proof, child-resistant container and be “reasonably inaccessible” while the vehicle is moving.
The presence of an odor, the court determined, could indicate non-compliance with transportation laws, providing probable cause for a search, according to the ruling.
In September 2024, the same court ruled that the smell of burnt cannabis alone does not justify a vehicle search, citing the possibility that the odor resulted from prior lawful use.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois supports the bill, saying it is necessary to eliminate confusion in the law and prevent potential abuses of the current legal standard.
“Drivers and passengers are legally able to possess cannabis in our state,” Alexandra Block, director of the Criminal Legal System and Policing Project for the ACLU of Illinois, said in a statement.
“This confusion over the odor of cannabis should not be a trigger for officers to continue to harass and delay motorists with intrusive searches.”
Capitol News Illinois contributed to this report