Marijuana legalization could limit or end the work of hundreds of drug dogs in New York.

Police can't tell whether marijuana-trained dogs are detecting pot or other drugs.

Dogs trained to detect marijuana can't unlearn the skill, police say.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a Colorado Supreme Court ruling this week.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — New York's newest police canines are learning their way in a 10,000-square-foot, Colonial-style dormitory nestled deep in the hilly woods off a winding road near Lake Otsego.

Skiff, Amber and Kelley — State Police's three narcotics-dogs-in-training, all named after fallen troopers — have lived there with their handlers since February, learning how to sniff out drugs in a basement obstacle course that includes a simulated three-room apartment, complete with a kitchen.

On the wall is a whiteboard listing all the drugs the dogs are being trained to detect — heroin, cocaine, MDMA, LSD, meth and PCP, among them.

One common drug, however, is conspicuously absent from the list.



Marijuana.



For the past two rounds of canine training since last year, State Police have opted against teaching their dogs to sniff out THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

The reason for the switch is simple: New York lawmakers are considering legalizing the drug, perhaps as soon as this year.

The consequences of marijuana legalization for state and local police dogs that have already been trained to detect it are wide-ranging and being tested in court in other states.

The legalization of marijuana could result in limiting or ending the work of perhaps hundreds of already-trained canines across New York.

“Our drug dogs are all useless if this passes, because you cannot take just one thing out of a drug dog’s training," said Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a former NYPD officer.

"You have to get all new drug dogs.”

Pot or harder drugs? Dogs can't tell

At issue is the concept of probable cause, a constitutional standard that must be met before police can conduct a search or make an arrest.

For decades, trained dogs have been used by police to alert them to drugs and establish probable cause that a crime has been committed.

But in states where marijuana has been legalized and dogs have been trained to detect it, police officers can't tell whether the canines are alerting them to legal marijuana or other, harder drugs, which remain illegal.

That makes probable cause murky at best and nonexistent at worst.

"Those types of searches can sometimes lead to other types of crimes being discovered," said Broome County Executive Jason Garnar. "It would be very difficult to have it in a court of law. That's a concern that local law enforcement have."

Pot-detecting dog challenged in court

The probable-cause issue has been tested in Colorado, which voted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012.

In December, the Colorado Supreme Court — the state's top court — heard arguments in a case involving a man who was arrested on suspicion of possessing a meth pipe in 2015.

Police found the pipe after a narcotics canine alerted them to it. But the dog was trained to detect marijuana along with a number of illegal drugs, and a midlevel appeals court ruled the dog's alert wasn't enough to establish probable cause as a result.

This week, the court ruled: An officer has to establish probable cause before using a dog trained to detect marijuana. Otherwise, evidence found by a dog can be thrown out at trial.

Prosecutors urged the court to overturn the appeals court's ruling and allow the arrest to stand.

"If a well-trained drug-detection dog is in a place where it has a right to be and it is smelling something that is not being detained unlawfully, then the dog's alert provides probable cause to search even if there is a possibility that the dog is alerting to a legal amount of marijuana," Paul Koehler, Colorado's first assistant attorney general, said during arguments.

Impact on dogs in New York

Marijuana legalization is no sure bet in New York this year.

So far, lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have been unable to agree on some of the major sticking points, particularly when it comes to what to do with any tax revenue the drug generates.

But some in New York are already taking steps to deal with the canine issue, so they can be ready if and when marijuana is ultimately legalized.

Prior to last year, the state required all narcotics canines to be trained to detect both cocaine and marijuana, at a minimum.

That changed June 6, when the the state Municipal Police Training Council — which sets minimum training requirements — issued a decision requiring dogs to be trained to detect three drug substances, but leaving it up to law-enforcement agencies to decide which ones.

Last year, State Police made the call to stop training their canines to detect THC, a decision the agency said was made with potential marijuana legalization in mind.

State Police currently have 58 narcotics dogs, including the three in training.

Should the dogs go into retirement?

As the dogs hit their mandatory retirement age of 8, they will be replaced with canines that have not been trained to detect marijuana.

That helps protect State Police's investment since training a narcotics dog is costly and time-consuming.

The state spends five months training new canines and handlers, who live together in one of 18 bedrooms in the Cooperstown facility during the process.

In the basement of the facility — built on 2,000 acres of sprawling woods donated to State Police in 2000 — are a handful of training tools designed to simulate drug searches.

In one, troopers can pick from a variety of tubes in a wall to pipe in a particular scent. When the dog finds which tube has the right smell, it claws at the tube until the handler makes a clicking noise with a handheld device, signaling the dog got it right.

The dog immediately runs to the handler and is rewarded with play — generally, a chew toy or some generous pats on the belly.

In another obstacle, a drug scent is placed in one of a series of safelike boxes, out of view of the dogs. It's the dog's job to figure out which box has the drugs.

The most lifelike tool is the simulated apartment, found in the far end of the basement. There, dogs are led through a kitchen, a bedroom and a living room, looking for the correct scent.

Teaching drug dogs new tricks

If marijuana legalization were to stall in New York indefinitely, state troopers could easily train the dogs to detect THC at a later date.

But they can't take away an already-trained dog's ability to detect the substance.

State Police officials haven't decided what would happen to the narcotics dogs already trained in THC detection should marijuana be legalized, according to spokeswoman Deanna Cohen.

It wouldn't necessarily mean that the dogs would be totally out of work.

In Monroe County, the Sheriff's Office has been in discussions with prosecutors about what legalization would mean for the county's canine unit, which has five narcotics dogs, including one assigned full-time to the county jail.

Sgt. Shawn Edwards, the Sheriff's Office's K-9 commander, said legalization would have "some impact but only on certain situations," though he acknowledged it's difficult to say definitively because lawmakers and Cuomo haven't locked down a final agreement.

Specifically, the marijuana-trained dogs likely wouldn't be able to conduct an open-air search, such as when a motorist is pulled over.

But marijuana almost certainly would remain prohibited in jails and schools, meaning the dogs could still get use there.

As the Sheriff's Office's five narcotics dogs reach retirement, they will be replaced with dogs who aren't trained in THC detection unless they're slated for the county jail, Edwards said.

"We don't know what our dogs alert on," Edwards said.

"Our dogs give us an alert, and it's for marijuana and/or narcotics. But as far as the schools, marijuana is not allowed in schools. Marijuana is not allowed in jails."