Officer's Skills in Smelling Unburned Marijuana Questioned

How many of us have had a case where an officer claims to smell a controlled substance of one form or another? As reported by Fourth Amendment.com, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the granting of a motion to suppress based upon an officer's claim that he smelled unburned marijuana in State v. Holley 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 2597 (December 23, 2008). An excerpt from the opinion:

Thus, probable cause had to be determined through the qualifications of Officer Boles. 

Officer Boles testified that he had attended one seminar where he was shown what raw 

marijuana looked like. There was no evidence that Officer Boles had any formal training regarding the detection of raw marijuana by odor or in distinguishing it from other substances. While there was evidence that he had encountered marijuana during the course of his duties, there was no evidence that he was qualified to know its odor or able to distinguish its odor from that of other substances.

If you find yourself investigating a case with a search based upon the olfactory senses of an officer, it is worth investigating whether that person has the proper training and whether the nose really knows...