The San Francisco Chronicle
When California voters legalized marijuana use for adults in 2016, they maintained criminal penalties against riding in a vehicle with an open container of marijuana. But the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that having pot seeds or crumbs on the floor of a car isn’t a crime.
For a violation of the law, “marijuana in a vehicle at least must be of a usable quantity, in eminently usable condition, and readily accessible to an occupant,” Justice Goodwin Liu wrote in a 7-0 decision dismissing charges against the passenger of a car in Sacramento.
While the criminal law doesn’t apply only to marijuana that’s held in an open container, Liu said — it might be spread out on a seat next to the driver or passenger — the marijuana crumbs found on the back floor and under the seat of a car stopped by Sacramento police in 2021 didn’t meet the standards for criminal charges.
The ruling reversed lower-court decisions allowing the passenger to be prosecuted. It comes 10 months after the state Supreme Court rejected a state appeals court ruling that said growing or transporting marijuana in California was still prohibited because the drug remains illegal under federal law.
Marijuana is legal for personal use in 24 states and for medical use in 40 states. Proposition 64, approved by 57% of California voters in 2016, allowed people 21 and older to possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana and grow six plants for personal use, and also allowed sales under state licensing. Medical patients age 18 or older can use marijuana with a doctor’s approval.
Possession, use and sale of the drug are still crimes under federal law, but federal prosecutors and officers seldom intervene in states that have legalized marijuana.
In the Sacramento case, police said they stopped a car after the driver had failed to stop behind a crosswalk. They said they saw a rolling tray for marijuana on the back seat and what they described as “weed crumbs” scattered on the floor. After the driver appeared nervous and denied having any marijuana supplies in the car, police said, they swept the crumbs from the floor — 0.36 grams, or just over 1/100 of an ounce — and arrested Davonyae Sellers, a passenger in the front seat.
A Superior Court judge and a state appeals court upheld the arrest and search, saying California law still prohibits drivers and passengers from riding in a vehicle with marijuana that is not in a closed container. But in Thursday’s ruling, the state Supreme Court said the purpose of the law was to prevent drug-impaired driving.
“Marijuana that is not in a state to be consumed or that cannot be reached while driving, operating, or riding in a vehicle has no potential for impaired driving,” Liu wrote. And in this case, he said, the marijuana “was neither imminently usable nor readily accessible.”
The ruling was welcomed by Neil Sawhney, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who filed arguments supporting dismissal of the charges against Sellers.
“The court rightly rejected the government’s approach, which would have allowed police to search cars simply when they see small amounts of lawful marijuana — an approach that would essentially recriminalize marijuana use,” Sawhney said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from the state attorney general’s office, which argued the case for the prosecution.
The case is Sellers v. Superior Court, No. S287164.
Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/marijuana-driving-supreme-court-21322794.php
