Commonwealth v. Canning

We consider here for the first time the Commonwealth’s new medical marijuana law, “An Act for the humanitarian medical use of marijuana,” St. 2012, c. 369 (act), which the voters approved in November, 2012. The central question presented is whether, with the act in effect, police may obtain a search warrant to search a property where they suspect an individual is cultivating marijuana by establishing probable cause that cultivation is taking place or are required to establish probable cause to believe that the individual was not registered, or licensed, to do so. In accord with cases relating…