If you pull aside any person in their 50s, and ask them about the 1960s and 1970s, they will often remark about how different things were. Upon further questioning, you’ll often find that many people who grew up in the 1970s as teenagers and people in their 20s will seldom hide the fact that they used to smoke Marijuana. Back then, especially during the hippie days of the 60s, drugs were a huge deal in the fact that they really weren’t. What do I mean by this? You could smoke cigarettes pretty much anywhere you wanted. There were no non-smoking sections in restaurants. In fact, at one point, smoking was seen as good for your health! Regarding Marijuana use, it almost seemed unusual to find someone in the 1970s who hadn’t yet smoked or tried Marijuana. Oh, how times have changed.
Not that long ago, when I was a police officer, I remember charging a young couple for smoking Marijuana in a hotel room. I was with several other police officers and we had been spending the majority of the night looking for a robber suspect when we received a tip that he might be staying in a specific hotel room at a specific hotel room. When I went up to the door and knocked, I immediately smelled what I identified as Marijuana. Sure enough, when the door to the room opened up, it opened up with a cloud of smoke that was rich with the smell of Marijuana. Inside, I was surprised to find a young couple who looked no older than 16 and 17 years old. They had unsuccessfully tried to hide the evidence but had very obviously failed to do so. According to the law, as police officers, if we smelled Marijuana, that was probable cause to search the premises. Additionally, within plain sight, I immediately saw a bong and Marijuana in baggies.
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