For decades, Florida law enforcement operated under a simple rule: smell cannabis, search the car. No warrant needed. No questions asked. That rule is now crumbling, and a series of recent court decisions are forcing everyone, including Monroe County judges, to take a hard look at whether odor alone can justify tearing apart someone’s vehicle.
Our defense attorneys haved worked with so many clients who were pulled over for something minor, a busted taillight, a rolling stop at a U.S. 1 intersection near Marathon or Islamorada, and suddenly found themselves facing serious drug charges after the police officer claimed to smell cannabis coming from the vehicle. If that sounds familiar, the legal landscape around those kinds of stops has changed in ways that could genuinely affect your case. Florida courts have recognized what anyone paying attention to state law already knew: legal hemp and medical marijuana smell identical to illegal cannabis, and a nose is not a lab test. Anyone facing charges tied to a traffic stop search should understand what a drug defense attorney can do with these new legal tools.
What Did the Courts Say About Car Searches Based on Marijuana Smell?
The case that changed everything came out of Tampa. On October 1, 2025, the Second District Court of Appeal ruled in Williams v. State that the smell of cannabis alone does not establish probable cause, and that this represents a major shift in how marijuana-related searches are handled. The court didn’t arrive at this conclusion out of nowhere. Legislators had made two major changes that destroyed the logic behind the old rule: the federal and state legalization of hemp products and Florida’s medical marijuana program, both of which involve cannabis that smells completely identical to illegal marijuana.
Because a police officer cannot determine THC percentages or verify a legal prescription through smell alone, the mere odor of cannabis can no longer make it “immediately apparent” that a crime is being committed. That reasoning is what the court leaned on, and it is hard to argue with the logic. The Williams ruling was issued by the full court sitting together, not just a small panel, which signals how seriously the judges took the issue.
Then came Cherfils v. State, decided on December 31, 2025. Under Cherfils, officers may still have probable cause to search when the odor is combined with other factors such as admissions, production of a medical marijuana card, or behavior suggesting recent use in the vehicle. So the smell is not completely off the table. It can still count as one factor when combined with other facts that point to a crime. What it cannot do, at least under these rulings, is stand alone as the entire justification for a warrantless search.
To clarify that last point: Cherfils is actually a case where the search was upheld. The driver showed a medical marijuana card, was evasive with officers, and the odor was particularly strong. The Second District found probable cause where the odor was combined with the driver’s dishonesty about the nature of the smell, evasive and argumentative behavior, and evidence that the cannabis was a type that could not be lawfully smoked in a vehicle. The lesson from Cherfils is that context matters. A lot.
Does This Apply to the Florida Keys and Monroe County?
Williams and Cherfils came out of the Second District Court of Appeal, which covers the Tampa Bay area. The Third District Court of Appeal is the intermediate appellate court for the southernmost part of the state, including Miami and the Florida Keys, and its jurisdiction includes both Miami-Dade County and Monroe County. So the Williams ruling does not automatically bind Monroe County courts the same way it binds courts in Hillsborough or Sarasota.
That said, the Third District has been watching all of this unfold. The Florida Third District Court of Appeal addressed related questions in a case involving a Miami-Dade traffic stop, raising important questions about whether the smell of marijuana alone still provides police with probable cause to search a vehicle, and highlighting the evolving legal landscape following Florida’s legalization of medical marijuana. The Third District, in that case, avoided issuing a firm ruling on the plain smell doctrine itself, instead resolving the matter on other grounds. That means Monroe County courts are operating in a genuine gray area right now.
Frankly, that gray area is exactly where skilled defense work happens. When the law is unsettled, there is room to argue. And in our experience, the arguments being made in Williams and Cherfils are persuasive ones that defense attorneys in the 16th Judicial Circuit, right here in Key West, can and should raise.
What Does “Odor Plus” Mean for Your Case?
For now, in part of Florida at least, law enforcement must now rely on the odor combined with other evidence under a “totality of the circumstances” to justify a warrantless search. Courts call this the “odor plus” standard. The question in any given case becomes: what else did the officer actually have?
Examples of additional factors courts may consider include visible contraband, signs of impairment inconsistent with legal medical marijuana use, a lack of medical marijuana authorization, or admissions of illegal possession. So if an officer stopped your car on Card Sound Road or near the Seven Mile Bridge, claimed to smell cannabis, and searched your vehicle based on nothing more than that smell, there may be a viable argument that the search violated your Fourth Amendment rights.
When evidence is obtained through an unlawful search, defense attorneys can file a motion to suppress. Florida courts are reinforcing constitutional safeguards against unlawful searches, ensuring evidence obtained without proper cause can be excluded, and if a search violates these protections, key evidence can be thrown out, often leading to reduced or dismissed charges. That is not a guarantee of any particular outcome. Every case turns on its own facts. But the legal tools available right now are genuinely stronger than they were two years ago.
One thing worth noting: medical marijuana patients face unique risks, because it is illegal to smoke medical marijuana in a vehicle, and identifying yourself as a cardholder when an officer smells cannabis can help establish probable cause against you. Showing your card does not automatically protect you. It can actually work against you in certain situations, as the Cherfils case demonstrated. That is a non-obvious consequence of these rulings that catches people off guard.
Where Does This Leave You Right Now?
The Second District Court of Appeal certified the question to the Florida Supreme Court, which means the state’s highest court may ultimately decide the issue for the entire state. Until that happens, the law remains in transition. Different parts of Florida may reach different outcomes on nearly identical facts, and that is genuinely frustrating for everyone involved.
What we do know is this: if you were arrested in Monroe County after a traffic stop where an officer claimed to smell cannabis, the legal foundation for that search deserves a close look. The courts have signaled that smell alone may not be enough. Whether that argument succeeds in your specific case depends on the facts, the timing, what the officer documented, and how the motion is argued.