POLICE SAY PHOTO OF MARIJUANA PLANT SUFFICIENT CAUSE FOR DRUG SEARCH

DAVIDSON, N.C. (AP) -- Davidson police are defending an officer's decision
to search a woman's car for drugs after spotting a photo of a marijuana
plant on the cover of a newspaper in her car.

Assistant Police Chief Butch Parker said the woman was stopped last week
because the officer believed he might find drugs in the car. The search was
not done until the woman gave her consent, he said.

"He acted properly," Parker said. "He thinks he had reasonable suspicion,
and we do too."

According to Parker, the woman went through a license check about 1 a.m. on
Aug. 17.

The search was conducted after officer Scott Searcy saw the Aug. 19 issue
of "Creative Loafing," an alternative weekly that featured a story about
police using helicopters to find marijuana fields.

Parker said Searcy thought the publication was "High Times," a magazine
about marijuana. He said Searcy has found illegal drugs on others who had
the magazine.

The woman, as well as the newspaper's editor, and a free speech expert said
the traffic stop was unfair. Police did not find anything illegal in the
vehicle, they said.

"This is tragic, but I'm not surprised," said Chuck Stone, an expert on
censorship and First Amendment rights.

Stone, a journalism professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, said it's impossible for
a photograph of an illegal drug to be probable cause. The officer seemed to
make his decision with no knowledge of the range of probable cause, he said.

"They are violating all sorts of First Amendment rights," Stone said. "The
trouble is you have to go to court and sue them."