Arrested for having a compartment that could store drugs

This reminds me of the feeling that TSA gives me, that you are guilty until proven innocent.  You might have materials in your luggage to make a bomb.  You might have an incendiary device in your long hair.  Now, you might have drugs in a compartment in your car.  What next, you might have empty space under your bed?


And yet, at the same time, I cannot help but giggle at thoughts of what a police officer might find in a hidden compartment.

BirdyBack wrote:This reminds me of the feeling that TSA gives me, that you are guilty until proven innocent.  You might have materials in your luggage to make a bomb.  You might have an incendiary device in your long hair.  Now, you might have drugs in a compartment in your car.  What next, you might have empty space under your bed?


And yet, at the same time, I cannot help but giggle at thoughts of what a police officer might find in a hidden compartment.

Exactly, except in this case there was nothing IN the compartment....it was the fact that there WAS a compartment that COULD have had something in it at one point.

bghlaw0371 wrote:

talknstang wrote:

bghlaw0371 wrote:

talknstang wrote:i just think it is hilarious that the arrest was justified because the cop thought he smelt MJ. How is he qualified to be able to sniff out such a smell like a drug sniffing dog?  That could be an angle to attack the PC issue.  Drug sniffing dogs i am sure go thru extensive training in order to be certified to sniff out drugs.  Did the officer go thru the same training?  Fat chance,  unless he eats Alpo

I hope folks remember to take notice when traveling from a state such as Colorado through the country into a state such as the one where you can't have a compartment in your car that may have the possibility of having had something from Colorado placed in it at some point.

your response is somewhat confusing.  Unless there was a similar federal statute, that case would remain in Ohio and not go federal. Travelling interstate with a hidden compartment  wouldn't have any other consequences because of this. Now if there was contraband in the compartment, that would be a different story. The driver would be arrested for the contraband as well as the hidden compartment and perhaps other charges. You know what they say, "ignorance of the law is no exuse"  lol

Didn't mean to confuse.  Sarcasm, in the fact that if the compartment is empty...nothing there...a compartment that can't be seen, that may or may not have had something in it that may or may not have been legal or illegal in one state before traveling through another state where it may be percieved to be illegal even if it is not there, but might have been under certain circumstances in another state.

In other words.  If a person has pot in their car in Colorado in a compartment that is not visible from the outside of the car.  It's legal.  

If they remove the pot from the compartment in Colorado, and clean out the compartment, and go through this state.  They can be arrested for having a compartment that smells like pot.

This is true, but i still like the angle of the drug sniffing cop, lol

talknstang wrote:i just think it is hilarious that the arrest was justified because the cop thought he smelt MJ. How is he qualified to be able to sniff out such a smell like a drug sniffing dog?  That could be an angle to attack the PC issue.  Drug sniffing dogs i am sure go thru extensive training in order to be certified to sniff out drugs.  Did the officer go thru the same training?  Fat chance,  unless he eats Alpo

I can walk down a street or through a parking lot and smell that someone is smoking marijuana.  I listed a house once in an old neighborhood near FSU which had been a rental for an owner out of town.  The back yard was a jungle and part of the jungle was huge marijuana plants.  I called the police and they came and carried the plants away.  They did have a distinctive odor even though they hadn't been dried.

The hidden compartment law has been on the books for many years in many states.  Usually the issue are compartments, my guess is nowadays, the places for air bags.  They are usually opened by some specific combination of actions in the car.  Turn on your headlights, same time you put the car in park and open the glove compartment.  Pop goes the hidden compartment.

BirdyBack wrote:This reminds me of the feeling that TSA gives me, that you are guilty until proven innocent.  You might have materials in your luggage to make a bomb.  You might have an incendiary device in your long hair.  Now, you might have drugs in a compartment in your car.  What next, you might have empty space under your bed?


And yet, at the same time, I cannot help but giggle at thoughts of what a police officer might find in a hidden compartment.

Don't get me started lol