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Judge: Officers can still use odor of marijuana for searches despite legal hemp

Chattanooga Police Department / Body camera footage shows Chattanooga officers stopping and searching Nik Shipley's car during a 2022 traffic stop. Shipley's allegations that the officers violated his rights were dismissed by a federal judge. Chattanooga Police Department / Body camera footage shows Chattanooga officers stopping and searching Nik Shipley's car during a 2022 traffic stop. Shipley's allegations that the officers violated his rights were dismissed by a federal judge.

By Ellen Gerst April 2, 2025 7 min read

The smell of marijuana, though indistinguishable from the smell of legal hemp products, can still be used as the basis for a police search and seizure, a judge ruled in the case of a Chattanooga hemp shop owner.

Federal Judge Mike Dumitru dismissed shop owner Nik Shipley’s allegations that Chattanooga police improperly searched his car and seized hemp products during a December 2022 traffic stop. Shipley is an owner of Happy Hemp Farmacy in Lookout Valley.

“In the Sixth Circuit, the odor of marijuana alone creates both reasonable suspicion to extend a stop and probable cause to search a vehicle,” Dumitru wrote in his ruling Friday.

Chattanooga police pulled over Shipley and a passenger after suspecting Shipley’s windows were tinted darker than the legal limit, according to court filings.