Alaska State Troopers-sponsored study: odor of marijuana leads to marijuana busts - Alaska Dispatch
Found: Sat Aug 27 20:32:43 2011 PDT
Webpage: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/shoc...
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propaganda analysisAugust 27, 2011
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A press release Thursday from the Alaska State Troopers revealed the results of a three-year study that determined the answer to a question that was bothering everyone: Is the odor of marijuana associated with the presence of the drug?
The statement from troopers, titled "Study Finds Marijuana Odors Significantly Associated With Marijuana Grows" was based on research conducted by the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center at the request the troopers. Troopers were quick to point out that no tax dollars were use to fund the study -- it was paid for with "federally forfeited illegal drug proceeds," according to troopers, who said the goal was to obtain:
...an empirical estimate of the extent to which AST investigators' detection of marijuana odors served as a reliable indicator of the presence of illegal quantities of marijuana in structures.
The study examined 200 searches for marijuana conducted by troopers between 2006 and 2008. 197 of those 200 searches resulted in the seizure of marijuana. The three cases where no marijuana was seized were not preceded by the detection of marijuana odor.
The study concluded that the likelihood of discovering four ounces or more of marijuana was 2.7 times greater if based on the presence of marijuana odor. In cases where there were 25 or more plants growing and marijuana odor was present, the likelihood of finding marijuana was 2.9 times greater than in cases where no odor was detected, The study said.
Presumably, the study could be used to buttress requests for search warrants in cases where law enforcement officers claim to have smelled marijuana. The courts have proven skeptical of some smell claims.
In April, a U.S. District Court judge rejected the notion that trooper Kyle S. Young, who made a pot bust in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in February, sniffed the weed in question while driving down the street in his trooper vehicle. Young subsequently obtained a search warrant based in significant parts on his sense of smell and made a bust. Questions then arose about the legal justification for the search.
An expert witness testified in court that there was a "zero" chance that Young had initially smelled the marijuana grow operation from the location he claimed to be in when he first sniffed the pot. Due partly to that testimony, the evidence -- the plants and equipment from the grow operation -- used to make the arrest was thrown out, undermining the state's case.
Quetions arose about other cases when it turned out this wasn't the first time Young had made a pot bust based on the claim of smelling cultivating marijuana. The Young case brought to the fore questions about the legitimacy of the scent test in determining the presence of growing marijuana. It's still a nebulous issue, as the case of Alaska State Trooper Kyle S. Young shows.
Despite the obvious implications from troopers that the new study shows that scents emanate from growing marijuana, has the fact that marijuana has a distinct smell ever really been questioned? The report is full of painfully obvious tidbits like this one:
AST investigators discovered four ounces or more of marijuana in 90.7% of the searches that were preceded by the detection of marijuana odors by one or more investigators. In contrast, four or more ounces of marijuana was discovered in 78.7% of searches that were not preceded by the detection of marijuana odors.
And:
...while the detection of growing/green marijuana odor by investigators is not significantly associated with the discovery of "small" amounts of marijuana (aggregate weights of less than four ounces), it does appear to be significantly associated with the discovery of relatively "large" quantities -- that is, four or more ounces and/or 25 more plants -- of marijuana.
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analysis of article text
prohibitionist prohibition_agency drugwar_propaganda legalization drug_reformer reform_referenda cannabis stimulant narcotic hallucinogen
propaganda analysis
EXP - explicit prohibition propaganda (explicit_propaganda)
GRP - hated group (propaganda_theme1)
MAD - madness, violence, illness (propaganda_theme2)
SOC - survival of society (propaganda_theme3)
USE - gateway, use is abuse (propaganda_theme4)
KID - children (propaganda_theme5)
WAR - demonize, war, epidemic (propaganda_theme6)
TOT - total prohibition (propaganda_theme7)
DIS - dissent attacked (propaganda_theme8)
re:0.87 st:0.02 fo:0 s:0.01 d:2.15 c:0 db:0.19 a:0.53 m:0.31 t:10.01 (f)
text of article used for CRITICAL ANALYSIS, under FAIR USE provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107, et al.
Sunday, 28 August 2011
[BOT] Alaska State Troopers-sponsored study: odor of marijuana leads to marijuana busts - Alaska Dispatch
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