Marijuana Odor Stop & Search Interview - Ron Williams

Hear Ron Williams tell his story of police stopping and searching him based on the smell and marijuana.

The police stopping and searching anyone based solely on the alleged smell of marijuana is unacceptable. It is routinely used to infringe on individuals’ right to privacy, which allows the police to justify racial profiling. In Maryland, police stop Black drivers more frequently than any other race, and probable cause to search is used to justify 67 percent of searches.

Take action to help reduce police interactions and adequately end the criminalization of marijuana as we move towards legalization.

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Nehemiah Bester edited this video.

TRANSCRIPT

My name is Robert Williams, Jr,, and I'm a proud Maryland farmer and watermen at a Somerset, Prince Georges and Charles County. I do practice responsible smoking. So I was I was driving about 11 miles over the speed limit. And so the officer pulled me over. And so there was no visible physical marijuana that you could see. He went back to his car.

He called his buddies. It was an additional car with two additional police in. And he asked me to step out. And I was like, What? And so he was like, Because we want to take the car. I know you're not taking my car. So he tried to pull me out of the car. Eventually, I, I got out of the car and got on to the hood.

And so they arrested me, put me in the back. You can't do you can't initiate a stop on suspicion of marijuana because what's the suspicion? Like two cars are driving the car. How do you know that? I mean, you know, over the over time, like, I got to makes fun of race, but it's just the it's just the hassle of going through that process in order to get this race off your record.

But people are going to say, yeah, you may not get charged for this or you may not go through the judicial process, but you still get an arrest record and employers look at that, schools look at that. Things will get better even though this is being decriminalized and it's been stopped and the legal form of of of going through the courts or it being put on paper, you still will have those officers on the ground that are using those patterns and practices and those methodologies to get into that car or that door to find other things.

Now, it isn't possible for one law to kind of crack down or cut down on a pattern and practice back. You know, black and white officers have been using as a barometer or as a stick to get into black and brown people's car But Maryland would be in a better position than place with this you know, with this in place, I would say to all legislators looking at this legislation seriously and look at it, how it impacts your demographic that you represent, pass it.

I mean, it is it is way past due.