S.C. senator wants to drop weed odor as cause for suspicion

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A South Carolina lawmaker is looking to remove the smell of marijuana as a reason for probable cause.

This means that if this legislation es, law enforcement would not be able to use reasonable suspicion to a stop, search or arrest someone.

Officials say this bill would protect many people, especially minorities and hemp farmers.

This legislation known as S. 892 was pre-filed by Sen. Deon Tedder, a criminal defense attorney.

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Tedder says it’s important to note that this bill is not seeking to make the use of marijuana legal but to provide guidelines for reasonable stops and suspicion.

As it stands now, an officer can simply say that they smell the odor of marijuana and that alone gives them probable cause to search your vehicle.

“I can probably tell you that almost 75% of incident reports that usually lead to a search almost always have the language that an office smelled marijuana, but then there’s probably more than 50% that they don’t find any marijuana at all,” Tedder said.

Those who work around or indulge in hemp, CBD, Delta 8 or Delta 9 products could be subjected to these searches even though it’s sold in stores across the state legally.

Tedder believes an officer has the right to pull someone over for a DUI and have them perform a field sobriety test if they suspect that person is under the influence of marijuana. However, simply saying they smell it is not enough.

“You will see a trend and African American males being pulled over. And the statement almost identical and police reports that Upon approaching the vehicle asked about a strong odor of marijuana”, Tedder said. And so, what this does, it says that they can’t use that alone.”

Senator Tedder welcomes any criticism and is open to engaging in conversations with opposers to improve this bill.

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