Google Photos won’t let you search for your weed pictures, even if cannabis is legal

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Google Photos’ search functionality has felt unreliable lately, especially as Google continues to inject Gemini into every nook and cranny of its ecosystem. While Google recently began rolling out a dedicated toggle that lets users switch off Ask Photos and return to classic search , a new issue shows just how heavy-handed Gemini’s underlying guardrails can be when applied to personal files.

Reddit user binarypower is complaining that Google Photos’ search feature yields no results when searching their personal photos for “weed,” “cannabis,” “marijuana,” or “joints.” The Gemini-powered Ask Photos feature actively refuses to search the user’s photos for these search terms, and the user claims that even classic search errors out.

The blockage appears to be a direct consequence of Google’s guardrails. Rather than acting as a mere indexer for your private photo library, Gemini appears to be evaluating incoming search strings as if they were generative prompts. Terms related to regulated or illicit substances are thus very likely to be flagged by Gemini’s safety filters, which is potentially why Ask Photos is applying the same restrictions to the user’s private media library as it does to chatbot responses. However, this doesn’t explain why classic search (without Gemini) is also returning no results.

As you’d expect, the filters are surprisingly easy to bypass with minor semantic tweaks. The user noted that searching for “hemp” cleanly bypasses the safety restrictions in place and surfaces the expected images of cannabis flower (and more).

An argument can be made that the sale, possession, or consumption of marijuana is restricted in many regions. But it also isn’t restricted in many states in the US and in many parts of the world, and the user claims it is legal in their region. Regardless, merely holding photos of marijuana is not illegal per se, and a user intending to search through their photo library should be able to do so without being morally policed for it. Keywords like “beer,” “alcohol,” and “cigarette” are not similarly morally policed in Google Photos, neither in Ask Photos, nor in classic search.

We’ve reached out to Google for a statement on the matter. We’ll keep you updated when we hear back from the company.

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