The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) directive states that police should not use cannabis smell as the only trigger for stop and search. 

The use of smell for search gives officers the opportunity to unconsciously bias based on prohibitive ideologies. By mandating a greater burden of objective evidence than the mere ‘suspected’ smell of cannabis, the new guidance aims to mitigate risks of discriminatory behaviour while still ensuring appropriate functions of law enforcement persist.

Practical Implications

With new procedures, officers are now required to establish reasonable suspicion with a combination of ‘clues’ that may exist such as observable behaviour, tips, or observing drug behaviour, rather than simply professing they ‘smelled’ cannabis.

Impact on Medical Cannabis Patients

The new policy is especially important for the 60,000-80,000 estimated patients using medical cannabis in the UK. These people had previously provided evidence to potentially determine uninformed harassment even though they used a legal substance. The new guidance and policies offer some greater protections for medical cannabis patients, who may have previously been subjected to stops inherently based on their prescription of therapeutic cannabis.

Legal and Social Challenges

The shift signals larger challenges around how impactful drug policy can be on police encounters, therefore allocating police resources more effectively. A significant two-thirds of drug-related disturbances and/or police interactions resort to stop-and-search measures, so clarifying these policies may lead forces to better allocate resources for serious crime.

Lastly, it acknowledges the reality of officers that rely on information based on sworn evidence of smell, which is unchallenged and has been unrecorded, submission evidence of vague liquids gathered by preceding searches, no accurate basis of evidence, which creates a minefield during proven complaint investigations and evidential proceedings in Court.

Future Directions

While progress has made strides to be in compliance with the new governing guidance throughout the UK, harmonized progress has far to go. The endorsement of the change in policy, and the recognition of experience-based decision making is going to rely on thorough and purposeful training for their officers, formal and standardized processes evidenced in practice and delineation of procedural parameters since each officer journey through the system is a multi-factored since there is often baseline faith that officers stand on its initially lost police custody, never to return if correctly any of efficiency.