
Quoting
Taxing Matters
You may contact the chief of the police agency that stopped you and complain if you wish. Sure, in your view it was “excessive.” It likely was though to be reasonable in the eyes of the officers. You are both looking at the same situation with a very different knowledge about you and what you’ve done. You knew whether you had any illegal drugs or had done anything else illegal. The officers, on the other hand, knew almost nothing about you. In particular, they don’t know whether you might have weapons until they check it out and they don’t have any idea if you might be violent. So when they detain suspects while investigating they typically put them in handcuffs to help prevent potential violence. There is nothing illegal about that.
If it is true that your windows looked like they may have violated the state law on vehicle equipment, that gives the officer the reasonable suspicion needed to pull you over. What the officers may do from there depends on how the stop unfolds. Even if the officers did violate your rights in how the stop was handled, you appear to have suffered no legally recognized damages from it so suing the police department here would likely be a waste of your money and time.
While Pennsylvania did this year pass a medical marijuana act, you cannot assume that your medical marijuana card from another state will be good in Pennsylvania. The state law that was enacted, read literally, would not recognize out-of-state medical marijuana cards. The law is very new and the state has yet to issue detailed regulations to implement the law, so right now there are a lot of unknown details. If you intend to travel outside California with your weed, you need to look carefully at the details of the laws of the places you will visit to make sure your possession and use of the drug will be permitted. Don’t assume that because another state has a medical marijuana program that you will be good to go. Look at the details of that program to find out for sure.