Marijuana legalization causes K-9 officers to retire early

May 15—As Missouri law enforcement agencies continue to adjust to legalized marijuana, one unexpected result has been the need to retire certain drug-sniffing K-9s.

"Once a dog is imprinted with an odor, they can detect that, it can't be unimprinted on the dog," said Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett. "So due to the passage of Amendment 3, we need to replace the K-9s that we currently have, and we're in the process of doing that."

Puett said the dogs' past training to detect marijuana could cause issues when developing probable cause.

"The issue is if they're used to develop probable cause, then that probable cause could be questioned because you're not sure what odor the dog would be reacting to," Puett said. "So whether it be reacting to marijuana, methamphetamine or some other type of substance, that's why most people are replacing their K-9s."

The Buchanan County Sheriff's Office currently has two K-9s that are both set to retire.

While purchasing new K-9s can be a difficult and pricey process, Puett said his department has been fortunate to receive a grant of about $62,000 that will help with the cost.

"We received a grant to replace the two that we had, so we're very fortunate there," Puett said. "So, it won't cost any local tax dollars. What will happen is the dogs will stay in service until the new dogs are purchased, the handlers are trained, and that is an ongoing process. It probably won't be completed until this fall."

Puett said the two K-9s they have planned to purchase cost $14,000 each.

"We're going to use a group in Columbia (for training) and those dogs are purchased out of Europe through a breeder-handler in Pennsylvania," Puett said.

As for what will happen with the retired K-9s, Puett said both dogs will remain with their current handlers and the dogs will just be off-duty.

"The handler has the option of purchasing the dog from the county and then maintaining the dog all on their own until the dog passes," Puett said. "Both our handlers are very close with their K-9 partners and they both have expressed that they want to do that. So the dogs will be staying with the handlers, which we're really excited about."

Puett said this is an uncommon situation, but many agencies are experiencing it statewide.

"It's never happened before," Puett said. "This is a unique situation, and every agency out there is looking to replace dogs and that's why it is a very difficult time right now to get dogs, get into handler courses and to get everything done. So, everybody across the state of Missouri is scrambling to get dogs purchased and replaced and make sure that they have everything that they need to make sure that car stops are handled appropriately."

Sara Rooney can be reached at sara.rooney@newspressnow.com.