Posted on 04/27/2023 12:58:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Republicans, in their unending quest to quash the tide of marijuana legalization, have latched onto the peculiar notion of canine unemployment as a rallying cry.
The stage for this bizarre spectacle was Minnesota's House of Representatives, where a bill legalizing non-medical cannabis for those 21 and older recently passed by a vote of 71-59.
During the pre-vote debate, Republican state Rep. Brian Johnson, who stood firmly against the bill, raised the alarm over the cost of retiring K-9s.
"I did not see anything reading through the bill dealing with our K-9 units," Johnson declared. "Can you tell me how much money is in this bill to help defer the cost to our counties and police departments for the cost of the retirement of the dogs?"
In a February committee hearing, Minnesota State Sen. John Jasinski, another Republican, bemoaned the impending loss of drug-trained dogs: "What it's gonna cost our law enforcement agencies who've… spent thousands and thousands of dollars on these dogs to get these dogs drug trained, and now they're going to have to be retired. That's a big issue. That's a huge cost right there," he said.
Vice cuts through the pot smoke and gets to the real reason the GOP likes police dogs — they are frequently used to attack Black people:
[S]ome criminal justice experts have been calling for an end to using police dogs, given their racist legacy—dogs were used to chase slaves—and brutal attacks. According to the Marshall Project, victims of police dog bites are disproportionately Black men.
If you are ever unsure about the motivations behind GOP behavior, remember that 80% of the time it comes down to racism or appeasing the NRA.
“spent thousands and thousands of dollars on these dogs to get these dogs drug trained, and now they’re going to have to be retired.”
So we’re supposed to believe that the dogs are only trained to detect pot, and not also trained to detect cocaine, heroin, methampetamines, etc?
To quote the Demented One, “C’mon man!”
The issue is they are “trained” to react to any of the drugs and don’t react differently for each substance. Dogs are used when there is lack of probable cause to initiate a search. So now if the signal that they detected something they were trained to detect (pot) that does not allow a search because pot is legal.
Stoners might agree with that.
Keep the gulags full. We paid so much for them.
Why retire them? If they don't have to sniff for pot anymore they can use their spare time biting biting Mexicans on top of their primary job of biting blacks. < /Apocalyptic level sarcasm>
Full? They are letting people with violent crimes get probation.
States have already legalized these drugs, how long before other states follow.
I should have clarified that the ‘argument’ above may have been said by Stalin or Beria.
“So now if the signal that they detected something they were trained to detect (pot) that does not allow a search because pot is legal.”
Oh darn. Guess the police will just have to stick to performing searches where they have probable cause, or a warrant, as the Constitution requires.
The “war on drugs” is mostly focused on cannabis. They like to talk about how dangerous the stuff you inject is, which is true. how many folks have you known that injected drugs? I’ll bet everyone knows someone who smokes or has smoked cannabis. If they can’t go after marijuana anymore there just aren’t that many hard core drug users left to justify their ever increasing budgets and staff.
Like that drug sniffing dog from Up in Smoke.
Let me translate:
Those police dogs are trained by big campaign contributors. They could train them for a few hundred dollars, but charge tens of thousands and kick some back into our campaigns.
I think that’s the old days. Now the government wants as many people as possible to use as much marijuana as possible.
A druggie Homo/Trans freak nation. Not worthy of its ancestors and their sacrifices.
What states?
What’s the cost? Please tell me the doggy unions haven’t negotiated extravagant pensions for them.
In Oregon almost all drugs including cocaine, heroin, LSD, methamphetamine, and oxycodone are legal, but I think if it’s large amounts, there is still some crime. British Columbia has even more liberal drug laws. I think magic mushroom are legal in Colorado, and will be soon in Washington. I think there are a few other states on the cusp of legalizing the rest.
Exactly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.