A Butler teenager suspected of impaired driving offered state police a novel excuse when she was pulled over in a marijuana-reeking car.

She blamed the odor on an air freshener, according to charging documents. But the novel defense didn't pass the trooper's smell test.

Police charged Brianna P. Lowery, 18, of Butler with drunken and drugged driving stemming from her early morning arrest in May in Butler.

Trooper Mark Hoehn shortly before 3 a.m. May 28 stopped Lowery's car for a pair of traffic violations in the 100 block of West New Castle Street. When he got to the vehicle, police said, he caught the whiff of marijuana.

The teen provided the trooper with an explanation for the conspicuous aroma.

“She related that several people have told her that her air freshener smells like marijuana,” Hoehn said in his criminal complaint.

Lowery let the trooper smell the freshener.

“It was not what I was smelling,” he noted.

Police said they had the suspect stick out her tongue, which had a green coating, an indicator of a marijuana use.

The trooper noticed other telltale signs and eventually had Lowery perform field sobriety tests, which she allegedly failed.

She was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital for a blood test. Toxicology reports subsequently confirmed the presence of marijuana in her system, documents said, as well as a blood-alcohol level of 0.055 percent.

In Pennsylvania, the legal limit for someone under 21 is 0.02 percent.

Lowery is charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and a controlled substance, DUI by a minor, underage drinking, driving with the driver's side head light not working, making an improper right turn and failing to notify authorities of a change of address.