The old hippie van reeked of weed
When I was 14 years old, I was already looking ahead to being able to drive. We lived sort of outside of town, and I always felt like I was missing out on social events. I started cutting lawns and hustling little jobs for neighbors, saving up every dime I could for two full years. By the time I had my drivers license I had enough money saved up to get a used car. It wasn’t anything fancy, just an old van that used to be owned by a hippie. It had a solid engine, a lot of space inside it, but even after all those years it reeked of cannabis. There was no doubting it used to be owned by a hippie, because the cannabis stink was deeply embedded into every fiber of the interior. I thought this might be a problem, so the next day I had my dad drive me to talk to the local police chief of our small town, and let him catch a whiff of this cannabis stink. We explained to the cop what had happened, and my dad told him how he didn’t want his son getting busted for cannabis that wasn’t even in the car. The chief understood, and said if it ever became an issue then he would have my back — which was a huge win for me, because I actually smoked cannabis all the time. Now I had what felt like a blanket immunity from going to jail when it came to smoking out or having cannabis in the car!