Methadone Rules to Be Eased Next Month, GA Pharmacy Begins Selling MedMJ Despite DEA Warning, More... (9/20/24)

The Illinois Supreme Court rules the odor of burnt weed is not probable cause to search a vehicle, Mexico's president says the US shares the blame for cartel violence in Sinaloa, and more.

The odor of burnt marijuana is not sufficient probable cause to search a vehicle, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled.

Illinois Supreme Court Rules Smell of Burnt Marijuana Not Probable Cuse for Vehicle Search. The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the smell of burnt marijuana alone does not give police probable cause to search a vehicle. The opinion, which cited recent changes in the state's marijuana laws (i.e. legalization), was unanimous.

The case arose from a 2020 traffic stop by a state police officer for an improperly secured license plate. The officer smelled burnt marijuana when the driver rolled down his window. The officer then searched the car and found a gram of weed in a plastic bag in the center console. The driver was charged with marijuana possession by a driver.

In the trial court, the officer testified that he searched the car because of the odor of burnt marijuana because Interstate 80 was "a known drug corridor," and because the driver admitted driving from Des Moines to Chicago -- cities that he described as "hubs of criminal activity."

The appeals court found the officer's probable cause explanation unpersuasive.

Under the state's marijuana legalization law, it is legal to possess marijuana in a vehicle if it is secured and inaccessible. No evidence was presented that the driver was smoking weed as he drove.

"We hold that the odor of burnt cannabis alone is insufficient to provide probable cause for police officers to perform a warrantless search of a vehicle," Neville wrote. "We also hold that the totality of the facts and circumstances known to [the officer] did not provide probable cause to search [the driver's] vehicle."

Medical Marijuana

Georgia Pharmacy Defies DEA, Begins Selling Medical Marijuana to Patients. Lawmakers passed a law under which pharmacies would sell medical marijuana to qualified patients, but the DEA then sent letters to dozens of state pharmacies warning them that dispensing medical marijuana would put them in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, which limits pharmacies licensed by the agency to only selling scheduled controlled substances.

That warning largely put the kibosh on pharmacy medical marijuana sales -- until now. A drug store in Augusta, the Living Well Pharmacy, began selling medical marijuana to registered patients last month.

"It's a new frontier," said pharmacy owner Vic Johnson. "I really think pharmacies are an ideal outlet for dispensing medical cannabis, because if you come to my pharmacy already, we can talk about what medications you already are taking."

He also said that many patients are already taking highly addictive drugs, "and the quality of life that can happen when they come off those medications is just incredible."

Living Well sells products from Botanical Sciences, one of two licensed producers in the state. Botanical Sciences had been providing products to at least three pharmacies before the DEA warning letter last October scared them off.

"All DEA registrants, including DEA-registered pharmacies, are required to abide by all relevant federal laws and regulations," said the letter from Matthew J. Strait, a DEA deputy assistant administrator in the agency's Diversion Control Division. "A DEA-registered pharmacy may only dispense controlled substances in Schedules II-V of the Controlled Substances Act. Neither marijuana nor THC can lawfully be possessed, handled, or dispensed by any DEA-registered pharmacy."

What sanctions Johnson could face is unclear. DEA could revoke his license to dispense federally controlled substances, or he could face other civil or even criminal charges. He says he is considering relinquishing his DEA license, which would mean he could no longer sell other substances in Schedules II-V of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), including painkillers, sleeping pills, and even some cough medicines.

Drug Policy

Methadone Dispensing Will Be Eased Beginning Next Month. It is about to get much easier for people relying on methadone as an opioid maintenance medication under new rules set to go into effect October 2 -- except in states that have tighter restrictions.

For decades, most methadone patients had to line up at special clinics each day to sip their dose of the medication in liquid form while being observed by staff. The rules, created by the stigma surrounding addiction, were supposed to prevent overdoses and diversion but also made life more difficult for people using methadone.

During the COVID pandemic, however, those rules were loosened to allow patients to take their medicine at home, and later research showed the looser rules did not result in increased overdose deaths or diversion. And people stayed in treatment longer. The federal government approved permanently loosening those restrictions earlier this year.

That will happen in less than two weeks. Under the new rules, patients will be able to take home a 28-day supply of methadone. Many states are updating their regulations to comport with the new federal flexibility. Still, some, including West Virginia and Tennessee -- states with some of the nation's highest overdose death rates -- have not done so.

"Where you live matters," said University of Arizona researcher Beth Meyerson, who studies methadone policy.

International

Mexican President Says US Shares Blame for Cartel Violence in Sinaloa. Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), whose relationship with the US around drug policy has always been fraught, said Thursday that the US was partially to blame for the wave of violence sweeping the northwestern state of Sinaloa as Sinaloa Cartel factions battle each other.

There has been a power struggle within the cartel since Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of imprisoned cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman kidnapped cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and delivered him to waiting US authorities in Texas. Guzman also turned himself in to US authorities there. Now, "Los Chapitos" and "Los Mayos" are at each other's throats.

The state capital, Culiacan, has been the scene of shootouts and vehicle burnings, and the death toll in the clashes has risen to at least 30. Hundreds of Mexican police and soldiers have been deployed to the state.

At his morning briefing, a reporter asked if the US government was "jointly responsible" for the violence, and Lopez Obrador responded, "Yes, of course... for having carried out this operation."