A Minnesota lawmaker said he is concerned that legalizing marijuana in the state might force police dogs out of their jobs, as well as cost taxpayers unforeseen money.
Can you tell me how much money is in this bill to help defer the cost to our counties and police departments for the cost of the retirement of the dogs and the replacements? Johnson said.
He added that he “did not see anything reading though the bill dealing with our K-9 units.”
Rep. Zack Stephenson, a Democrat who drafted the bill, said there will be “considerable appropriations to local units of government in multiple different areas.”
The bill, which would make non-medical pot legal for people 21 and older, passed on a 71-59 vote. Johnson voted against it.
It has now been referred to the Finance Committee.
In recent years, several states that have legalized recreational marijuana have seen police departments retiring their working K-9s prematurely. Many have had to purchase and train new dogs to detect illegal drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.
The Associated Press reported that “dogs trained on multiple drugs alert in the same way for all of them, so it’s impossible to tell whether they are indicating the presence of marijuana or an illicit drug. The dogs also cannot distinguish between a small, legal amount of marijuana or a larger, still-illegal amount of the drug. For police, that means they can no longer be used to establish probable cause for a search.”
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