Chicago City Wire

Chris Cleveland, GOP Party chairman of Chicago, is criticizing Illinois Democratic senators for passing a measure that would prohibit the smell of marijuana from being used as probable cause by police officers to search a vehicle or its passengers.

"This law is foolish," Cleveland recently told the Chicago City Wire. "What if a car reeked of gin? Would an officer have probable cause to check to see if the driver was drunk?"

Senate Bill 125 is sponsored by Illinois state Sen. Rachel Ventura (D-Joliet), and lawmakers voted 33–20 to pass the legislation, a recent Marijuana Moment report said. Supporters argued that the bill would protect residents' rights against unreasonable searches.

“People—especially people of color—are unnecessarily pulled over far too often,” Ventura said in a statement, quoted by Marijuana Moment. “The odor of cannabis alone shouldn’t be one of those reasons. Cannabis is legal in Illinois and it’s a pungent scent that can stick to clothes for extended periods of time.”

Senate Democrats affirmed the push for the bill stemmed from a Will County court case in which a defendant was pulled over and arrested after the officer detected “a strong odor of burnt cannabis emanating from the vehicle,” which the defendant later clamed was due to someone having smoked cannabis in the car “a long time ago.”

The bill would not alter the state’s laws concerning impaired driving, meaning the act of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would remain a criminal offense, the report said. The bill states that “if a motor vehicle is driven or occupied by an individual 21 years of age or over, the odor of burnt or raw cannabis in a motor vehicle by itself shall not constitute probable cause for the search of the motor vehicle, vehicle operator, or passengers in the vehicle.”

The bill is now set to be reviewed for further consideration by the Illinois House of Representatives.