LOOPHOLES NEED TO BE PLUGGED

The best that can be said about the Delta, B.C., case in which a
judge declared police should not have searched a car that yielded
four bags of marijuana plants is, from such incidences was the phrase
"the law is an ass" coined and reaffirmed.

Provincial court Judge Peder Gulbransen threw out the case against
David Razah Hood, who was stopped by police when he was driving in a
suspicious manner past an alleged grow-op house they were staking
out. Hood's car reeked of burnt marijuana, so police arrested him.
The bags of starter pot plants were in the back seat. Hood was then
charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

Gulbransen, however, tossed the case out because he said the police
needed "additional circumstances" to validate the arrest, such as
seeing Hood smoking pot or finding remnants of a joint in the car.
The odour alone, Gulbransen ruled, wasn't enough.

This case is not the same as that of a suspected drunk driver who is
pulled over and asked to take a breathalyzer test because of the
odour of booze on his breath. It was only the car that smelled of
pot, not Hood himself.

But it does seem ridiculous the case should be dismissed on such a
technicality when the plants were right there in the back seat. No
wonder police often express their frustration at the way their best
efforts to uphold the law are thwarted by the time the cases wend
their snail-like way through the court system.

B.C. should be looking at closing a few of the loopholes in its laws
regarding search and seizure, if it ever hopes to wage effective
combat against drugs.