IN UPHOLDING MARIJUANA BUST, COURT REFERENCES 'SOUTH PARK,' 'CHEECH &
CHONG'

Footnotes In Ruling By The State's Highest Court Explain Pop Culture
References

The marijuana smoke filled the Baltimore rowhouse in a "haze" that
"engulfed" the four people sitting around the kitchen table, all of
them within arm's reach of the smoldering remains of a "blunt" in an
ashtray.

One of the men appeared "groovy" and "relaxed" and was "just going
with the program."

It was, the state's highest court said in a ruling issued Friday,
"reminiscent of a scene from a Cheech & Chong movie."

Baltimore police had burst into the Lanvale Street rowhouse on Dec. 6,
2006, and arrested the men at the table, including Clavon Smith, who
police said also had 15 small bags of marijuana in the pocket of his
black leather jacket, which was hanging from the back of a chair.

Smith challenged his conviction and the 60 days he spent in jail for
marijuana possession, saying the police couldn't prove that the joint
at the table and the drugs in his jacket belonged to him. A majority
of Court of Appeals judges disagreed and upheld the conviction. Two
judges dissented.

Though replete with the requisite legalese and Latin phrases, the
high-court judges managed to break free from their scholarly
restraints to reference the 1970s hippie drug scene and draw
comparisons to pop culture icons who challenged conformity and
societal norms.

Writing for the majority, Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr. referenced Cheech
& Chong.

In his dissent, Judge Clayton Greene Jr. quoted Mr. Mackey from "South
Park."

And both judges felt it necessary to include footnotes explaining
their references.

In a space usually reserved for defining arcane legal verse, Harrell
took pains to describe Cheech & Chong, noting the popular series of
movies that began with "Up in Smoke" in 1978 and "portrayed
recreational drug use in non-threatening situations."

Greene countered with the more up-to-date "South Park" reference,
penning that in the "immortal words of Mr. Mackey, 'Drugs are bad.'
"

He used his footnote to put the quote into full context, and it's most
likely the first time an opinion from the state's highest court has
included the phrase, "It's a bad thing to do drugs, so don't be bad by
doing drugs, m'kay, that'd be bad."

Smith's attorney had argued that the police did not prove his client
knew about the drugs in his jacket, and that "his presence at the
table was not sufficient to prove that he exercised dominion or
control over the blunt." (The judges used another footnote to define
"blunt" as "a popular term for a marijuana cigar" and even provide
instructions on how to make one.)

Harell wrote that Smith "was in close proximity to the known marijuana
in the blunt" and that "it was reasonable to infer from the
circumstances that he was engaging in the mutual use and enjoyment of
the marijuana."

Greene disagreed, writing that concluding that Smith smoked marijuana
without more proof was "conjecture" and that the "mere knowledge of
the presence of contraband is not a substitute for participation in
the use and enjoyment of that substance."

The judge wrote: "Ordinarily people are taught from a tender age, just
because an object is within one's grasp does not mean ... that the
object belongs to that person."

Greene ended his dissent with a reference to "South Park," writing
that "although in the immortal words of Mr. Mackey, 'drugs are bad,'
the law imposes no legal duty, as opposed to moral duty, to stop
others from using drugs, or to run away from people who are using drugs."