Law enforcement officials in Illinois claim they’ll have to euthanize their police dogs if the state moves to make pot legal.
Chad Larner, a K-9 training director in Macon County, says it’s the only reasonable thing to do if lawmakers pass a bill allowing recreational marijuana use.
“Because many K-9s are trained not to be social so their work won’t be affected, Larner said a number of dogs would likely have to be euthanized,” reports The Bloomington Pantagraph.
Once the dogs are trained to sniff, it’s difficult or impossible to retrain them, says the police chief of the town of Normal.
“At this point, they’re trained on five different odors. Once they’re programmed with that, you can’t just deprogram them,” Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli told the paper, admitting the plan to kill the dogs doesn’t seem rational.
Macon County Sheriff Howard Buffett (interestingly the son of billionaire Warren Buffett) said at the very least the dogs will have to be replaced, and called the bill a win for drug traffickers.
“The biggest thing for law enforcement is, you’re going to have to replace all of your dogs,” Sheriff Buffett told the paper. “So to me, it’s a giant step forward for drug dealers, and it’s a giant step backwards for law enforcement and the residents of the community.”
The Pantagraph points out Sheriff Buffett’s “private foundation paid $2.2 million in 2016 to support K-9 units in 33 counties across Illinois.”
A marijuana advocacy leader in the state argues police are exaggerating the threat to police K-9s.
“The idea that legalizing for adults to have an ounce on them will equal… all these dogs being euthanized, that seems kind of ridiculous and hyperbolic,” Illinois NORML Executive Director Dan Linn said.
As pointed out by author Radley Balko, police have a hidden motive behind protecting the K-9s, which are instrumental to civil-asset forfeiture programs.
The police in Illinois aren’t worried about the well-being of drug dogs. They’re worried about the well-being of drug cops. Lots of law enforcement jobs — K9 cops, drug task forces, narcotics detectives — depend on the government’s continued pursuit of marijuana. So, too, do the revenue streams of many police departments and prosecutors’ offices. When there’s a threat to that revenue, they’ll do anything to protect it, including making threats to euthanize dogs, or warning that if we dare to stop cops from taking money from people without due process, we’ll soon see headless bodies hanging from bridges.
While a law making Illinois the 10th US state to legalize recreational marijuana is still in the works, November elections could be a bellwether of where residents stand.
“The gubernatorial battle between Democrat J.B. Pritzker and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner offers a distinct choice for voters,” reports the Associated Press.
“Rauner, who is seeking his second term, has been adamantly opposed to recreational pot use. Though he signed the 2016 bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, Rauner has called legalization ‘a mistake’ as recently as last month.”
Illinois decriminalized possession of up to 10 grams of marijuana in 2016, punishable by a fine of up to $200, and the state legalized medical marijuana for qualifying medical conditions in 2015.
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