Remember those Pinellas County, Florida, sheriff’s deputies with the suspiciously keen olfactory senses? They identified possible marijuana growers by using a surveillance camera to track the customers of Simply Hydroponics (right), a store in Largo. But since hydroponic equipment has various legal uses, the fact that people patronized the store did not give police probable cause to search their homes. Investigators needed something more, which they often supplied by claiming to have smelled marijuana while standing on public property outside of people’s homes (including the home of at least one person who was not actually growing marijuana). Now the Tampa Bay Times, which first called attention to the deputies’ amazing noses, reports that the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office “is dismissing charges against an accused St. Petersburg marijuana grower and will reconsider dozens of similar cases” due to “allegations that narcotics deputies trespassed and lied to gather evidence.”
Obviously the real way to settle this is through a lot of elaborate smelling tests for these officers. They would be rapidly exposed as frauds, and it would be hilarious. This should ideally be filmed for YouTube.
(Source: laliberty)
