Spazzer

I have a small mint container in which I carry around my weed .

But I have a question. If I was patted down, and had to take it out of my pocket, could the cop open the container? OR would that be against my 5th Amendment rights?

The container doesn't emit any smell either, it's airtight.

And If it helps, I live in CT.

JrGong

If there searching you it either means you gave them permission, they got a warrant/permission with cause, or you were comitting a crime/have commited a crime in the past. With this being said, when searching you there going to search everything. Think about it this way, if you were a cop and you were patting down a suspicious person and came across your mint container would you open on and check it out??? So if they have no reason in the first place to search you then say no to a search when they ask to avoid the whole situation. But if they do and they find the mint container, its as usefull as a clear plastic bag... there going to search it.
(Hopefully that makes sense, kind of blazed right now)

Buzzby

I think you mean Fourth Amendment rights. That's the one about search and seizure. The Fifth Amendment is the one about self-incrimination.

Under the Terry doctrine, if you are detained by a police officer, he can pat you down to verify that you aren't carrying weapons. If he finds a container that could contain a weapon, he can open it.

You are misinformed. A Terry pat-down is not a search under the meaning of the term in the Fourth Amendment.

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steakii

any cop can do a weapon pat down for just about any reason. He could feel the mint container and claim that he thought there might have been razor blades in it, but instead he finds your weed. Since he finds it, you get charged. If a cop does find the mint container by patting you down, you can nearly guarantee that he is going to open it.

CRIMSONxSOLDIER

If the police can search your pockets/backpack/purse, why wouldn't they be able to search a container that was IN your pocket/backpack/purse?

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SpiralArchitect

Yes, they could look inside the container. Small containers that fit in your pocket, like your 'mint container' are hardly inconspicuous to a LEO.

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Freedom_User

If he finds the mint container. Break out.

Because I love the TV show Cops.

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The feds continually use and twist this simple clause as an excuse to expand their own power - at the expense of our liberty.

"If you shot a ton of pot to the Sun, will it burn up and get everyone high?"

BartSimpson

This is an interesting question because the use of the container is not obvious for MJ, and the Officer would have to explain how in his experience feeling such a container in your pocket was consistent with drugs or weapons. If you also have a pipe or papers then that could be probable cause to open the container.

In the old days, 35mm film containers were commonly used and I am aware of cases being dismissed when the officer failed to articulate the criminal intent of the container when questioned in arraignment.

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blondie0420

A Terry search is most commonly a pat down for weapons. But an officer can also perform a search (I believe still under Terry) in which he either confirms or denies an articulable suspicion. For instance, if the officer had reason to believe that someone under 21 had a bottle of vodka in his backpack, he could perform a search just to see if the bottle of vodka was there or not. He couldn't go into the small pockets if the pockets were too small to fit the size of the bottle he was looking for. However, if he opened the largest compartment of the backpack looking for the bottle and saw a bag of weed lying top top of everything else, that would be a legal search as long as his original suspicion is articulable. In other words, he'd have to be able to affirm that he had some reason to search you and he'd have to say what that reason is.

The issue of the mint container is, I think, pretty clear cut. An officer pats you down, feels something he can't immediately identify (or so he says at least) and pulls it out of your pocket (just in order to identify it, of course). He pulls out what looks like a packet of mints and he hears a different sound coming from the container than he would if mints were shaking around inside. Common sense assures him that whatever is shaking around in the mint container is not mints (they have a pretty obvious sound usually), so he opens it up and there's weed in it. Ta-da!

Bart is correct but he fails to consider the sound the container makes. The officer doesn't know for sure that the mint container is "obvious for mj" or other drugs...until he shakes it. Then he hears something, it's not mints, at that point he has every reason to believe that drugs might be inside -- and here's that articulable suspicion piece I mentioned before -- so now, he can open it up and look at it.

So, in response to the original question: yes, an officer probably could open up your mint container during a search.

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CRIMSONxSOLDIER

But the cop can also state "Why would this kid have a mint container in his pocket?" Idk about you but I dont think most people carry tins filled with mint in their pockets .

Edit: Nevermind. It depends on what kind of "mint container" you have. Because I thought it was the HERB mint. Not like Altoids or something.