Legal Marijuana Pushes Missouri Drug-Sniffing K-9s Into Early Retirement

Some drug-sniffing police K-9s in Missouri are out of a job thanks to the legalization of marijuana in the state.

Dogs who are sensitive to the smell of cannabis can potentially compromise police investigations since a law was passed in November allowing adults over the age of 21 to possess up to three ounces of marijuana, the Columbia Missourian reported.

According to the outlet, dogs trained to detect marijuana and illegal drugs cannot separate the substances when alerting a handler. The K-9s also can't tell the difference between quantities of marijuana present.

Those conditions can pose difficulties for officers and prosecutors under state law.

The Missouri state constitution says evidence of marijuana alone can no longer be used to initiate a search “without specific evidence indicating that the marijuana is outside of what is lawful for medical or adult use," the Missourian reported.

"A defense attorney is going to say, ‘Your dog hit on marijuana’ if there’s even one joint, no matter if there was cocaine or whatever else alongside it," Sgt. William Brown, head K-9 authority at the Kansas City Police Department, told the news outlet.

Kansas City "discontinued" all police dogs who were trained to detect marijuana since the law passed last year.

“Everything becomes fruit of the poisonous trees if we use these K-9s,” Brown told the Missourian.

While some agencies are going down the same path, others are waiting to see how the new laws play out in court.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said it can still use its dogs without concern about conducting an illegal search, the Missourian reported.

That's because some of the department's police dogs have multiple skillsets and can still conduct other tasks, such as tracking suspects and detecting bombs, Sgt. Charles Wall told the outlet.

“The fact that we say we can’t use the dog to develop probable cause — there’s not case law yet where the courts have actually said ‘you can’t do this,’” Wall said.

For areas of the law that still prohibit marijuana, “it is our interpretation of Amendment 3 that the odor of marijuana may still establish cause to search in certain situations,” he said.

According to the Missourian, retired K-9s often live with their handlers' families.

Such is the case for Nero, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois who works for the Columbia Police and is slated to retire with his handler, Officer Eric Wiegman.

“My kids wouldn’t know what to do without him at home,” Wiegman said.