United Kingdom: police shouldn't stop someone just because they smell of cannabis

The British police have been advised by the College of Policing, a professional body of police officers responsible for training and passing on good police practice, not to arrest someone just because they smell of cannabis.

This tacit but official rule was first issued last year and reiterated in a report by HMICFRS, the equivalent of our IGPN. The latter explains that the smell of cannabis is not proof of guilt and should not constitute grounds for arresting a suspect.

The report also notes that a large proportion of law enforcement officers are unaware of this rule, and that there were 596 recorded incidents of an officer stopping a person based on the smell of cannabis.

«[Our best practices] dictate that the only cannabis smell, The smell of cannabis, without any other contributing factor, does not normally justify a search. Recent research has shown that including the smell of cannabis as a reason for a search does not increase the likelihood of a cannabis search resulting in the discovery of a crime. The suspect's behavior should be more important than the smell of cannabis in deciding whether to search, as behavior directly or indirectly related to drugs increases the chances of success,» the report states.

The directive is not unanimously supported, however, with Merseyside's Chief Constable, Andy Cooke, declaring on Twitter that he would continue to ask his police officers to stop and search people smelling of cannabis.

I disagree. The guidance in my view is wrong and the law does not preclude it . Smell of cannabis is sufficient to stop search and I will continue to encourage my Officers to use it particularly on those criminals who are engaged in serious and organised crime. https://t.co/BpUnlJRwDU

- Andy Cooke (@AndyCookeHMCI) December 12, 2017

The report also states that the excessive use of stop-and-search on black, Asian and minority ethnic people was a public threat to police confidence. Black people are 8 times more likely to be stopped in the UK than white people.