Next month, voters in Maryland will have an opportunity to legalize recreational marijuana in the state by supporting an initiative that seeks to amend the constitution of the state with regard to cannabis prohibition. If the measure passes, police dogs trained to detect different drugs, including marijuana, will suddenly be required to shift their focus to other tasks in their job description.
The sniffer dogs usually undergo training in a wide variety of roles. For example, they can track people, conduct physical apprehensions of suspects and identify guns as well as detect a variety of illicit substances such as fentanyl, heroin and marijuana.
In anticipation of the possibility of legalizing marijuana, several agencies around the state, such as the sheriff’s office in Frederick County, have discontinued the training of sniffer dogs in the skill of detecting marijuana. In fact, many stopped as far back as 2014 when the possession of small amounts of cannabis (less than 10grams) was decriminalized. That step indicated the strong possibility of full legalization, and the November poll is likely to deliver just that.
Police departments are concerned about continuing to use these dogs trained in detecting marijuana. This is because it isn’t possible to untrain a given canine once it has acquired a certain skill, such as sniffing out marijuana. Given that dogs are normally trained to detect several narcotics, it isn’t possible to predict which particular drug a dog is excited about, and that puts police in a difficult situation of arresting individuals who are in possession of a substance that is now legal for use by adults.
For a number of sheriff departments, dogs with marijuana detection training may still find use in facilities that are drug-free zones, such as schools as well as correctional facilities. Otherwise, the dogs are dual trained, so once they are no longer useful in detecting drugs (due to marijuana becoming legal), they are likely to end up deployed elsewhere for apprehending suspects, searching for missing people and other duties.
In the meantime, police departments are waiting for guidance from the different county state attorneys general regarding whether the sniffer dogs can remain on duty until July 2023 when full legalization takes effect, assuming voters endorse the ballot measure calling for recreational marijuana legalization.
The entire cannabis industry together with leading cannabis companies such as American Cannabis Partners will most likely be monitoring events in Maryland and other states where marijuana will be on the ballot to see how far the legalization wave goes during this election cycle.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to American Cannabis Partners are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/ACP
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