Does the marijuana smell rule still work now that hemp is legal?

The argument is straightforward and it has persuaded several Florida appellate courts. Hemp is legal. Medical marijuana is legal for registered patients. Both smell identical to illegal marijuana. If an odor can equally indicate something lawful, it can't by itself make criminality apparent.

Two districts have accepted that reasoning and receded from the older rule. One certified the question to the Florida Supreme Court, which has not yet resolved it.

The Fourth District, which covers this area, has not receded. Its recent decisions have upheld searches in this context.

Three practical consequences. The argument is worth raising here even though the local precedent is unfavorable, because the law is actively moving and the Supreme Court may settle it. Where an officer relied on odor *plus* something else, the analysis is different and generally more favorable to the State everywhere. And courts elsewhere have applied a good faith exception to searches conducted while the older rule was binding, meaning past searches aren't automatically undone.