“In a series of three rulings issued Friday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court cracked down on police who have been using evidence of marijuana possession as a pretext to search automobiles. In 2008, 62 percent of state voters approved an initiative that decriminalized possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. To justify the search, prosecutors argued that by passing around a joint, Pacheco was guilty of ‘distribution’ of marijuana, which is punishable by two years in jail. The state argued the trooper’s search was valid because he was investigating the crime of distribution. The high court did not agree.”
