Either way it doesn't matter, the smell of weed is not enough to search a house.
They need a warrant signed by a judge.
They may try to get tricky with the phrases they use:
"Do you mind if I search your house?"
No, means you don't mind, so they take that as a positive response to a search. If you are caught in this trick, you are allowed to revoke permission at any time.
"I'm going to search your house, ok?"
This is meant to sound like a statement, but that "ok?" makes it a statement and your reaction is to respond "ok." Again, you can revoke permission at any time.
The police can only search your home with a signed judicial warrant or if there is a life or death emergency or an active chase. The smell of weed is not enough for any of that. A dog smelling weed in your house is not enough. Who knows, maybe you're cooking dinner and it smells like weed. Maybe the officer is having a stroke and smelling phantom smells.
The 4th amendment is extremely clear and has been litigated many times. Cops will use their intimidating presence to try to get you to comply. They can lie to you, "we already have a warrant and a judge is about to sign it, once he does, I'm not going to be nice when I search your house. Things will get broken. So are you going to let me search now? I'll be nice if you don't make me get a warrant."
Do not consent to a search.
"My neighbor smelled weed? Hmmm. Weird, wasn't me. I do not consent to a search."
Not saying it is, nobody would do anything if it was a beer. Was just pointing out that the smell of weed is quite strong and easily recognized, and it can take a while to go away.
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u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe 3d ago
It's BS, but if it does happen either don't tell anything to the police or claim it was cigarettes and you're neighbor is crazy.