

Legal pot means big changes for state’s drug-sniffing dogs - danso
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Legal-pot-means-big-changes-for-states-drug-sniffing-dogs-199043431.html

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tubbzor
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.

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lmm
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?

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tubbzor
>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.

