Marijuana Smell Alone Should Not Justify A Search

Based on six years of data of police stops in Philadelphia based on the smell of marijuana, this brief overviews how its use as a justification for a search has vastly increased the number of searches conducted, but less than 20% of the searches relying on the presence of marijuana actually discovered contraband. The brief argues that such discretionary opinions perpetuate implicit bias and result in racially biased outcomes.