Dogs that are typically used to sniff out marijuana are finding themselves off duty these days in Colorado. The change comes since Colorado has legalized cannabis. While it is impossible for a dog to tell cannabis from other illegal substances, as laws evolve the future generations of K-9s will not be taught to sniff for cannabis. Colorado adds that it is now illegal for a K-9’s detection of cannabis to be the catalyst for a new search. Damian Perez the vice president of Colorado’s K-9 Association added “Agencies have decided to basically phase out these dogs that are trained in marijuana and replace them with dogs that are not trained in marijuana, thus causing a big push to retire a lot of dogs.” Some agencies are phasing out the dogs as they get older and some are bringing them into early retirement. Some dogs however will still be utilized in federal cases and in schools, where cannabis is still prohibited.
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