New York Rethinks Using Weed Smell for Traffic Stops

If you’ve been cruising around New York with a little herbal essence in the air, you’ve probably enjoyed the fact that police can’t search your car just because it smells like weed. But that could be changing—again.

Law enforcement in New York State currently does not have the authority to search a vehicle solely based on the smell of marijuana. Right now, cops must have probable cause—like actually witnessing someone in possession of cannabis—before they can legally search a vehicle.

A Legal Loophole That’s About to Close?

This all goes back to March 2021, when New York signed the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) into law. But now, Governor Kathy Hochul is looking to tweak the legislation, specifically when it comes to traffic stops and vehicle searches.

So what’s the big change? It all comes down to one little line of text.

Hochul’s budget proposal for transportation, economic development, and environmental conservation would reintroduce language stating that “the odor of cannabis, burnt cannabis, or other drug” could be used as reasonable cause for police to search a vehicle—or even require a driver to submit to a court-ordered blood test for impairment.

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This potential change is particularly relevant when it comes to accidents and impaired driving cases, as there’s currently no reliable roadside test for cannabis impairment.

For now, nothing is official—but if this proposal makes it into law, the smell of weed might once again be enough to get you pulled over, searched, and possibly even tested.