New pot law won’t displace drug dogs | News, Sports, Jobs

While drug-sniffing police dogs are reportedly being forced into early retirement in states where adult marijuana has been legalized, Chautauqua County sheriff James Quattrone doesn’t think any of the department’s K-9s will be so dramatically affected.

The point is that dogs trained to detect multiple drugs – including marijuana, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine – alert all of them in the same way, making it impossible to tell if the K-9s are detecting the presence of Indicate cannabis or an illegal drug. The dogs also cannot distinguish between a small, legal amount of marijuana or a larger, still illegal amount of the drug.

A story published by the Associated Press in late May found that new marijuana possession laws mean police can no longer use them to determine a likely cause for a search.

Quattrone confirmed that the new law that allows adults in New York state to legally own and use up to 3 ounces of recreational marijuana will affect the department regarding the use of the drug detection K-9s to be in Cases to find probable causes.

“These dogs are trained to give the same clue when they locate their trained scent.” said the sheriff, “And to my knowledge there are no legally justified examples of a dog being retrained or ‘cleaned’ of a previously imprinted odor.”

He added: “The obvious legal argument made by any defense is that even if a dog points it out and another drug is found, they claim that their client is a regular marijuana smoker and the dog points out the residual marijuana odor . This will certainly hold up under most circumstances. “

Quattrone said for that, however “large majority” over time, the K-9s are used as a locating tool. “It was quite rare that we would use the unsolicited dog’s indication for an no-search search or as a reason for a search warrant to find a probable cause.” he said. “There were very limited circumstances in which we could use them in this way.

“Most of the time the situation was that a probable reason for the search was already there, regardless of the use of the dog, and the dog was being used as a tool to find contraband that could not be found by manual search. This utility is still as workable as it was before the new marijuana laws. For example, if we have a warrant to search for narcotics in a residential area, I am not aware of any legal decision that restricts or defines what instruments we can use in this search. (It is) no different than someone using a mirror or periscope to search a false ceiling, no different (than) a portable X-ray machine. These dogs are tracking tools that “see” what nothing else can. “

In Virginia, the rush to decommission marijuana detection dogs began even before lawmakers voted last month to speed up the legalization timeline. A separate law, which went into effect in March, prohibits police from stopping or searching people just for the smell of marijuana.

The Virginia State Police are retiring 13 K-9s, while many smaller law enforcement and sheriff’s offices are retiring a dog or two. Most are in the process of buying and training new dogs to only recognize illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines. Some departments can’t afford up to $ 15,000 to buy and train a new dog, so they are disbanding their K-9 units.

According to the AP, other states that previously legalized marijuana had to make similar adjustments. “The trend is everywhere” said Don Slavik, executive director of the United States Police Canine Association. “Once you’ve taught a dog to behave, it never goes away. They don’t want mistakes, so they want to bring new dogs with them. “ he said.

In Massachusetts, where recreational marijuana became legal in 2016, Quincy police switched two dogs from drug detection to patrol work and retired them about 18 months later.

Two of the four K-9s with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office (K-9 Drake and K-9 Link) are used for narcotics detection; the other two dogs (K-9 Jax and K-9 Bentley) take care of the detection of explosives and the detection of small objects and explosives. Drake, Link, and Bentley are also used on patrols and people tracking, making them an important tool for the department.

“Of course, I believe our narcotics dogs today are valuable tools that should continue to function in their respective legal capacity as long as they are healthy.” Quattron said. “Going forward, it’s pretty clear that we shouldn’t be certifying marijuana evidence.”

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