Kentucky’s medical marijuana program has police departments rethinking K9 teams
By Todd Dykes
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COVINGTON, Kentucky (WLWT) — With a nose that knows how to find illegal drugs, Stryker is a key member of the Covington Police Department.
“What’d you find? Aw, good boy,” K9 Officer Sam Mathews told Stryker, his canine companion.
During a recent drug detection demonstration, Mathews rewarded Stryker for sniffing out the kind of substances that can devastate a community.
“Every time we train, whenever he finds something on the street, it is mind-blowing to me how capable they are with their nose,” Mathews said.
But unlike a lot of police dogs in the Bluegrass State, one capability Stryker does not possess is the ability to detect marijuana.
“All the new canines coming online now are not being trained to detect marijuana in anticipation of Kentucky’s medical marijuana and any possible future legalization of marijuana,” said Kenton Co. Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders.
Sanders said some police dogs trained to find weed are being taken off patrol to avoid potential legal conflicts with Kentucky’s new medical marijuana program, which starts in January.
“It’s a challenge,” said Covington police Capt. Justin Bradbury.
Police departments, like Covington, are now working to replace dogs trained to find pot with ones that don’t possess that skill.
“Like anything else in police work, there’s always going to be challenges,” Bradbury said. “We always have to adjust the way we’re doing things and adapt.”
The goal is to keep legitimate medical marijuana patients in the city from having unwanted brushes with the law.
There are 15 K9 teams throughout Kenton County. The average cost of a police dog is at least $10,000, so the transition to buy K9’s that are not trained to find weed will cost tens of thousands of dollars.
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