How To Stay Out Of Trouble While Driving With Marijuana

As a non-medical pot smoker, I have had to be vary careful to avoid the long arm of the law. When it comes to driving with marijuana I have a pretty good track record, other then one time when I was caught in a bad position. Many, many other times I could have been in legal trouble but I always follow a few simple rules. These rules are nothing crazy or insane and they will not bail you out of every spot but they have worked for me so maybe they will help you.

Also, check your state’s laws to stay current with your specific state’s legal limits.

1.Keep your paperwork legit. Be sure to have insurance, driver’s license and current registration handy and know where it is. Besides, trying to find that stuff when you’re stoned isn’t fun.
2.Be sure your car is in good working order. This included taillights, license plate lights, headlight and turn signals. Basically anything and everything that could get you pulled over.

3.Don’t smoke pot in while driving in city limits if at all. This rule isn’t necessarily set in stone but unless it can’t wait, try and save your smoking for the freeways and highways. Also, don’t hotbox your car, as this is just asking for trouble.

4.Don’t leave your vehicle littered with pipes and roaches. It gets to a point that you have so much stuff in your car that could get you in trouble, even a busy cop with bad eyesight would have to bust you.

5.Don’t consent to a search unless you want trouble. A police officer will search high and low for anything that could get you in trouble. I had a friend once who thought that they had nothing in the car consent to a search. The police ended up finding an empty bag with a few small flakes of weed in it and he got a ticket.

6.When possible, put your stash in the trunk. I have a jacket with zipper pockets that I use to carry my weed. I just throw the jacket in the trunk and you can’t smell it in the cabin.

7.Don’t put your pot in the same spot as your insurance and registration. This one I learned the hard way when I got stopped one night. I reached in the glove box to pull out my paperwork and there was my bag of weed right on top. Luckily, the officer didn’t see it but I’m not taking that chance again.

8.Control the odor. If you can’t kinda smell weed chances are a cop will pick it up right away. I keep a bottle of body spray or cologne with me at all times just to be safe (and to smell good for the ladies, haha).

9.Don’t be nervous. Cops are trained to watch for non-verbal clues and being shaky and nervous is an obvious sign that something could be up. Just relax, think about something else and forget you even have it(mostly).

10.Finally, don’t be stupid. Don’t drive around town on a Friday night with more weed than is needed or anything unnecessarily reckless. The more chances you take, the more likely you are going to find yourself in some sort of trouble.

Also, these rules apply when you are a passenger too, as you can find yourself in just as much trouble as the driver, another lesson I learned the hard way.

Bottom line, remember a police officer can basically do whatever they want and make your life really, really difficult. You may have you case thrown out later but you will still be out your time and weed, so it’s still pretty rough.

I know that there are more, but this is just a basic rundown so feel free to add anything I didn’t include.