Talk about possibly legalizing medical marijuana in Wisconsin is raising some questions about drug dogs.
Police departments can pick drugs individually to train them on but the dogs don’t react differently to each type. That means if pot is legal officers won’t be able to tell what the dog smells during a search.
Brown County Sheriff’s Captain Dan Sandburg says it costs about $17,000 to train each K-9 unit. He says once a dog is trained on marijuana any decisions down the road could make that training useless.
Brown County’s newest drug dog leaves for six weeks of out-of-state training on Saturday. Sandburg thinks they risk losing money and cutting a dog’s career short if they decide to train for marijuana.
