Legal pot means big changes for state’s drug-sniffing dogs

komonews.com

1 point·danso··3 comments

My father is currently a Police K9 trainer for a city Colorado. About 2 months ago they retired a dog and the new dog they received is the first in Northern Colorado which does not hit on cannabis, but does on all the other typical drugs.

When cannabis was legalized here, any previous dog which hit on cannabis could not longer be used by local and state police for drug searches due to anything found related to a dog that hit on cannabis is dismissible in court since it is no longer illegal.

As a foreigner I find this state/federal distinction terribly confusing. So cannabis is illegal in the US under federal law, but not under state law in some states? Doesn't that mean it's still probable cause that someone is breaking the (federal) law, and therefore reasonable grounds to search someone?

>So cannabis is illegal in the US under federal law, but not under state law in some states? Correct.

It all depends on who is attempting the search.

City/County/State entities have their respective jurisdiction and all must comply with state law, and therefore some states no longer have reasonable grounds to search based purely on cannabis scent. It would be equivalent to police coming to your house and smelling alcohol on your breathe and attempting a search based purely on that.

Federal entities, such as DEA and Dept of Justice maintain federal jurisdiction and can come in and trump state law (by definition). The Dept of Justice (Eric Holder specifically I believe) recently came out saying they would not prosecute those who are obeying state law as long as they don't sell to minors and keep it away from federal buildings/schools ect.

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