Cannabis Scent Wafts to Cop's Nose from Open Window of Passing Car

A Riverside police officer sitting in a marked squad car at 1:25 a.m. Thanksgiving day caught a whiff of cannabis as a car with rolled-down windows passed her.

The officer stopped the driver, Jack P. Giacoma, 20 of the 1600 block of North 78th Avenue in Elmwood Park, in the 200 block of Shenstone Road in Riverside, according to Riverside police.

A strong smell of burnt cannabis was reportedly coming from inside the car along with the strong smell of alcohol on the Giacoma’s breath.

Giacoma failed all of the DUI field tests he performed, and he needed help standing at one point, police reported. He was arrested for driving under the influence and charged with DUI, DUI drugs, operation of an uninsured motor vehicle and illegal transportation of open alcohol.

Two passengers were also asked to get out of the car. They were both 19-year-old men from Berwyn, and they had possession of open alcohol, cannabis and a cannabis grinder, police reported.

All three of the car’s occupants acknowledged they smoked cannabis before they got in the car and they smoked while riding through residential areas in Riverside.

The two 19 year olds were charged with possession of alcohol by a minor and issued citations for possession of cannabis and possession of drug paraphernalia.

“The driver of the vehicle, Mr. Giacoma, was so intoxicated that when he was being processed by police officers, he laid down completely flat in the booking room due to his intoxication level,” said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel in a statement. “Additionally, he and his friends in the car were smoking cannabis and were so intoxicated or under the influence of cannabis that they rolled their windows down and drove past a fully marked police car with cannabis flowing out the window so obviously that the officer could smell the cannabis from the vehicle that she was in. ”

Photo courtesy of Riverside police.