When an officer asks if you smoked pot recently, thirty seconds ago isn't exactly the best answer.
Police at a Nova Scotia traffic checkpoint were baffled to discover a local man casually smoking a joint while awaiting inspection last Wednesday.
"I honestly don't know what to think," Royal Canadian Mounted Police traffic services Cpl. Andy Hamilton told CBC News.
Despite the minimal amount of police work required to catch the stoplight stoner -- the suspect reportedly lit up within plain view of mounties -- police eventually confiscated the stash and sent the man on his way without charging him.
"I can't get into this guy's mind, but he felt comfortable enough to light a joint within eyesight of the police, probably figuring he'd finish it off before he gets there and no one will be the wiser," Hamilton said, according to the Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald.
After the man successfully completed an hour-long sobriety test, officers concluded "that this was the one and only joint that was smoked."
At least he lit up in Nova Scotia and not in New York City, where pot-related arrests have become so commonplace in recent years that the city is gaining a reputation as the "marijuana arrest capital of the world."
And as for the man's poor judgement of smoking locations, all Cpl. Hamilton could say was that the traffic stop toker is lucky stupidity is not against the law.
"It's probably a good thing that it isn't," he added. "We wouldn't be able to write enough tickets."