Legal Weed In Ohio Sends Police K9s Into Retirement As They Can’t Unlearn Cannabis Detection Skills, Now What?
Ohio lawmakers are scrambling to address an unexpected consequence of the state’s November marijuana legalization law. Nearly 400 police dogs trained to sniff out cannabis will need to be retired, creating a financial burden for law enforcement agencies.
Why? The dogs can’t reliably be retrained not to sniff out cannabis.
“We don’t think anyone anticipated this as a problem for our police departments, and it’s a real concern,” said state Rep. Sean Brennan (D) who is sponsoring a bill to help offset the cost of replacing the K-9 units. Brennan and state Rep. Josh Williams (R) are lead co-sponsors of proposed legislation that would provide grants of up to $20,000 per dog to cover acquiring, training and equipping new K-9 units that will not alert police to the presence of …