“Is joining NORML probable cause for a search warrant?”
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 9:41 am | By: Radical Russ
One of the problems we have as a minority community is that we are invisible. Much like the gay rights movement, we have to “come out of the closet” to our friends, family, and co-workers if we expect to make any headway in changing cannabis laws. It’s easy to discriminate against a faceless “other”; much harder to abuse the rights of someone you know.
Like the gay community, we can face ostracization and job loss if we come out of the closet. But unlike the gay community, we face an additional hurdle: we can be arrested for our “lifestyle”.
Which leads me to this question that came floating through my inbox:
“Is joining NORML probable cause for a search warrant?”
Absolutely not. Or as NORML Founder Keith Stroup puts it:
The fact that a citizen in the US would elect to exercise their 1st amendment right to freely associate with an organization such as NORML does not provide any legally recognizable probable cause that a crime is being committed in their home, and it would not be something that a judge could even consider when deciding whether to issue a search warrant.
Belonging to NORML or contributing to NORML is totally irrelevant to the question of probable cause to issue a search warrant.
So the answer is NO!
So please, join NORML today.
Topics: Keith Stroup
