Newsweek reports
The legalization of cannabis in states across North America isn’t just affecting humans, but animals, too, as sniffer dogs whose services are no longer required are being forced into early retirement.
Sniffer dogs are trained to pick up the scent of illegal drugs. But now cannabis is no longer banned in some U.S. states and Canada, the skills of older dogs are becoming more of a hindrance than a help, The New York Times reported.
Tommy Klein is chief of the police department in Rifle, Colorado: one of the U.S. states where marijuana is legal.
He told The Times: “A dog can’t tell you, ‘Hey, I smell marijuana’ or ‘I smell meth.” They act the same for whatever drug they have been trained to track down, he said.
A stock image of a sniffer dog. Sniffer dogs are becoming redundant as cannabis is legalized in more and more states.
Referring to a recently retired dog, he said: “If Tulo were to alert on a car, we no longer have probable cause for a search based on his alert alone.”
In one 2015 case, a dog alerted police to a car containing a pipe which featured traces of methamphetamine, ABC affiliate Denver 7 reported. However, as marijuana was also found in the car it wasn’t clear which substance the dog had detected. As such, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled that a sniffer dog’s hunch cannot be the sole justification for a vehicle being searched, and the case was thrown out. Earlier this year, the Colorado Supreme Court said it plans set to review the decision.
