WEST JEFFERSON, Ohio - Diego is a new police dog who works for the West Jefferson Police Department. Omar Salem, an officer for the department, became his handler in September last year. 

What You Need To Know

  • Ohio lawmakers are still debating how to implement Issue 2 that legalizes recreational marijuana in the state

  • Whatever form it takes it is expected to impact life in many ways 

  • K-9 trainers say police dogs who’ve been trained to detect this now-legal substance likely will retire 

Diego is trained to detect all sorts of drugs, including methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin. But he’s not trained to detect marijuana, also called weed. Ohio residents can now legally grow and possess up to 2-and-a-half ounces of the once-illegal drug for recreational purposes, thanks to the passing of Issue 2 on Nov. 7, 2023.

Omar Salem, officer for the West Jefferson Police Department and handler of Diego, a police dog for the department, Taylor Bruck/ Spectrum News 1

“We only had two dogs,” Salem said. “The previous dog was trained on marijuana, but he retired in 2018, and this is actually the second dog we’ve ever had in the police department.”

Mitchell Christian, owner and head trainer at Christian K-9 Academy said they stopped training dogs to detect marijuana months before Issue 2 even passed.

“A lot of vendors got ahead of this happening because they knew eventually it would come,” Christian said. 

He said the dogs can’t decipher between different amounts of marijuana which could lead to legal troubles for police departments. 

“Once the dogs are trained on the odor, it’s kinda hard to convince them not to look for it,” Christian said. “If you’re using a dog that is trained on a legal substance to get probable cause to search a car that can go against the person’s Fourth Amendment rights to search and seizure.”

Mitchell Christian, owner and head trainer at Christian K-9 Academy, Taylor Bruck/ Spectrum News 1

Christian said the change means hundreds, potentially thousands of police dogs will need to be retired in the state, leaving a big cost to the police departments to replace them. Police dogs can range anywhere from $8,000-$20,000. 

“Now that they’re prematurely having to retire dogs, it might be hard to find the funding again because it is a lot,” Christian said. “The dual-purpose dogs are pretty expensive and even single-purpose dogs are. Especially if your department has two or three of them. Now, you have to replace all of them all at the same time and that can get quite expensive.”

As for the police dogs, when they retire, Christian said they’re usually bought by their handlers for a dollar and go on to live a relaxing life as a pet dog, off-duty. 

“We develop a special bond with these dogs and luckily he’s not trained on marijuana, so that’s good, but I would definitely buy him if he retires,” said Salem. 

For more information about Christian K-9 Academy visit here.