The legal issues involved with legalization of marijuana is sending some hard working members of law enforcement to an early retirement and a story out of Rifle, Colorado on the topic made the front page of Sunday’s New York Times. The article tells the story of K-9 Officer Tulo, a beautiful yellow Labrador Retriever, who has served with the Rifle Police Department for 8 years. Officer Tulo will retire early because the K-9 is expertly trained in detecting marijuana. Rifle Police Chief Tommy Klein explains that drug dogs will alert officers for any of the drugs they have been trained to detect and this is leading to liability issues where marijuana is now legal. In Colorado, as well as in other states and up into Canada, new K-9 officers are being trained with no reaction to marijuana, a quality that is now an advantage. Cost to smaller departments is among the issues tied to this new overhaul.
Photo credit: New York Times
