How often do police officers use the excuse that they smelled marijuana to justify searching people and cars?
If you get into a car accident in Texas would you expect the police to order a “forced blood draw” because they claimed to smell marijuana?
Well it could happen to anyone, as KSAT12 explains.
When Leon Valley Corporal Michelle Barrientes-Vela and Chief Deputy Anthony Castillo arrived at the scene of a two-car accident involving 19-year-old Madison Huizar, things quickly took a turn for the worse.
“A 19-year-old San Antonio woman involved in a car crash earlier this year had her blood drawn without the arresting law enforcement agency first obtaining a search warrant and was nearly subjected to a cavity search.”
Barrientes, wanted to ticket Huizar for driving without a valid license but Castillo was having none of it and insisted he smelled pot emanating from Huizar’s car.
Police claim airbag smelled like pot
Despite finding no evidence of pot in her possession, purse or her car, Castillo ordered University Hospital staff to conduct a forced blood draw without a warrant.
So what happened? How could an experienced deputy insist that he smelled marijuana when no one else did?
The answer that the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office provided, is so preposterous it will make you head spin.
“The smell was later determined to be from the airbags of Huizar’s vehicle being deployed, according to Leon Valley records.”
Law enforcement, expects the public to believe that a trained police officer could easily mistake an airbag deployment for pot, which could also justify a cavity search!
KSAT12 reports that Castillo was so convinced that Huizar had smoked marijuana that he asked a paramedic at the scene of the accident to conduct a cavity search while en route to the hospital.
“EMS personnel told the deputy they would not take part in such a search. The paramedic, who rode in the ambulance with Huizar and a deputy, was also instructed by a coworker not to do a cavity search if asked while en route to the hospital.”
Unfortunately, incidents like this happen all the time. Police have mistaken Hibiscus plants and Okra for pot and have also mistaken glazed doughnut flakes and cotton candy for meth.
Law enforcement has been using inaccurate drug testing equipment for years, putting innocent people behind bars for things like chocolate chip cookies, breath mints, Jolly Ranchers etc.
You would think that law enforcement would be concerned about all these examples of false positives. But sadly, that is not the case. Recent examples show police using, $2.00 roadside drug testing kits, portable breathalyzers and DNA Phenotyping mugshots to arrest innocent people.
When law enforcement is given carte blanche to arrest innocent people for making a wide turn, even the most stubborn of us has to admit that our justice system needs to be fixed.
https://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2019/04/chief-deputy-claims-airbag-deployment.html
everything smells like weed to a pig
I wonder if there is such a thing as a doughnut scented air freshener. Oh hell, what am I thinking, that would just make things worse.
If you have every smelled a deployed air bag – it smells exactly like gun powder, specifically shotgun shell powder. Retarded cop.
Maybe it was the bag of weed he had in his pocket to plant along with his throw-away gun in case he felt the uncontrollable urge to murder somebody.
And you are right, it smells like gun powder, and gun powder does not smell like marijuana.
Anyone who doesn’t believe it can test the theory by shooting a gun with a lit joint in their mouth.