By Journalist Alexandria Willard (OSU)
This morning, the highly discussed bill, SE-507, authored by C. Walker (SE), was passed. “The Cannabis Odor Protection Act of 2023” protects persons from the odor of cannabis in their vehicles during a traffic stop, but specified to be not to apply to those operating a motor vehicle under the influence of cannabis. With six friendly amendments filed, this bill was a large part of the conversation.
When asked what inspired them to write the bill, Walker stated, “We are a state that prides ourselves in being a ‘medical state’ and making sure our patients are protected and have access to this medication.” When explaining how unlawful searches and seizures could affect medicinal card holders or cannabis workers they replied, “Individuals will oftentimes smoke in their cars or just be exposed to the smell because maybe they don’t want to smoke in their apartments, around children, things of the sort. It also protects individuals working in the growing industry because you will be covered in that smell.”
The most common questions whispered throughout the room were all regarding how this would affect DUI investigations and traffic stops. In Walker’s interview, they said, “It does not specifically interfere with DUI investigations as law enforcement has many other ways of checking for impairment, i.e. swerving lanes, bloodshot eyes, clearly smoke in your car, and I believe law enforcement is capable of telling the difference…There were valid, to an extent, concerns about it interfering with DUI’s, but I want to stress, there are sections in this bill that do not interfere.” Walker stated, the bill was “received mostly well” and is meant to “foster good faith between citizens and police officers.”
C. Mitchell (OSU) was asked his opinion on the bill this evening after it was passed through the house. He stated, “I think it was an interesting bill that brought up a lot of interesting discussion…I feel like there were good points made by both sides and I feel like the bill itself was but together well but left a lot of things open to interpretation, which I think not a lot of people were happy about.” When it came to the “things open to interpretation”, he said, “I think if it came back next year, I would like to see some of those loose ends tied up.”
Now, the bill is onto the senate, but there is no worry for Walker, as they said, “I feel pretty good, it passed by a fairly decent margin, so I am fairly confident that going into the senate, this is based mostly in improving officer citizen relations, so I feel it will go pretty well.”