Virginia Senate kills bill to allow police stops based just on pot smell

A Senate bill that would allow law enforcement to stop a vehicle solely on the odor of marijuana failed on Monday. 

SB 12, introduced by Sen. Bill DeSteph, R- Virginia Beach, would authorize law enforcement to stop, search, seize and issue a search warrant if the odor of marijuana creates reasonable suspicion. The bill failed in the Courts of Justice Committee on a 9-4 vote on a party-line vote.  

DeSteph proposed the same bill last year, which also did not make it out of committee.

“We want to empower our officers to address clear violations, such as no taillights at night, and it helps prevent very dangerous driving conditions,” DeSteph said. “It provides a closing of a gap that currently hinders officers from acting on credible signs of impaired driving.”

DeSteph noted a spike in DUI accidents in Virginia, but a 2024 Department of Motor Vehicles report concluded that the spike may not reflect an increase in drug use but a return to pre-pandemic traffic. After Virginia legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2021 and changed cannabis testing protocols in 2023, the report also found a 15-fold increase in positive cannabis tests. 

Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, an advocacy group, said that the bill would target minorities. 

“Here in the city of Richmond, we have always heard about an officer that was called ‘The Nose’ because many of his arrests started because he smelled marijuana,” Higgs Wise said, “and most of his people were, yes, black residents.” 

Higgs Wise said: “This bill will not only notify Virginians but the rest of the country that the Commonwealth is open for business for racial profiling.” 

Robert Poggenklass, a staff member at Justice Forward Virginia, a non-partisan advocacy group focused on criminal justice reform, added that the bill is a repeal of a 2020 bill, patroned by Sen. Louise Lucas, D- Portsmouth, that says if a law enforcement officer finds marijuana, it should not be reasonable suspicion that the person knowingly or intentionally possessed it.