Connecticut Lawmakers Debate Bill To Let Police Stop Pull Over Drivers For Marijuana Consumption

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Connecticut’s House Republicans submitted written testimony in support of the bill, calling it “common sense” and “a step in the right direction.”

“It makes no sense that an officer must generally ignore the smell of cannabis, while the smell of alcohol may be used by an officer to establish a legal basis for a stop or search of a vehicle. It strains credulity to discern a reason that these two substances—which both are intoxicating and illegal to consume while operating a car—should be treated differently,” they said.

But several people who testified to the committee said detecting cannabis poses greater challenges than alcohol does, since people’s bodies process THC at different rates and the chemical impacts individuals in different ways.

Rosado also said there are very few drug recognition experts—police officers trained in determining whether drivers are under the influence of drugs—throughout the state of Connecticut. That limits police efforts to identify impaired drivers.

The bill would also require the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to explore setting a limit for how much THC a driver can have in their bloodstream. Five states—Ohio, Illinois, Montana, Washington and Nevada—have established such limits.

People who opposed the bill overwhelmingly said they were against people driving while high. But they underscored that current methods for detecting cannabis usage were inaccurate.

John R. DelBarba, assistant legal counsel in the chief public defender’s office, said in written testimony that current drug tests don’t accurately show whether someone is “impaired” by cannabis. He and others noted that the drug can linger in the bloodstream for 24 to 48 hours after use, and that regular users may have consistently high levels of the compound in their blood.

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DelBarba also questioned whether the smell of marijuana was enough to meet the burden of “probable cause” necessary to stop a motor vehicle.

Josiah Schlee, a member of the advocacy organization CT CannaWarriors, said he was once stopped by drug recognition experts on his way home from a concert where he was working as a photographer. He said that while he had no cannabis in his car, and was “stone-cold sober,” the odor of marijuana that pervaded the concert lingered on his clothes.

Schlee said he was given a sobriety test, which he said he failed because of a visual issue. He spent the next year contesting the charges in court, which hampered his ability to find work.

“I had to spend 13 months in court fighting these charges,” he said.

People opposing the bill also said they viewed it as a way of bringing back the “drug wars,” and said they feared the legislation would disproportionately impact people of color.

“[This bill] in my opinion, does not make our roads safer,” said Christina Capitan, a cofounder of CT CannaWarriors. “It just makes it easier to punish cannabis consumers for using a legal substance, especially those who are already overpoliced.”

Instead, she and others proposed that the state invest in safe consumption spaces, rideshare programs and public education about marijuana.

“The infrastructure around drug recognition experts in Connecticut needs to be bolstered, as well as the science and technology needs to catch up,” said Duncan Markovich, owner of the cannabis store Better Ways. “Please always keep the ideal of education over enforcement while crafting these common sense cannabis laws.”

This article first appeared on CT Mirror and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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