As legalization looms, K9 units across the country are facing a problem: their dogs are outdated.Drug-sniffing dogs undergo training from a very young age to be able to detect a wide variety of drugs, including cannabis, which will be legal in Canada on Oct. 17. And while some have been forced into early retirement, many will remain in their jobs, raising questions for legal experts concerned that law-abiding citizens might be stopped and searched by police based on an alert for a perfectly legal substance.Some organizations said they’ll be totally unaffected by legalization. Since crossing the border with cannabis will remain illegal without a permit, the Canadian Border Services Agency said all their drug-sniffing dogs will remain in the same role.“Through its programs and services, the CBSA will continue to uphold laws governing the illegal cross-border movement of cannabis, while facilitating the free flow of legitimate people and goods,” spokesperson Jayden Robertson said in a statement.Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Jason Doucette said the VPD’s drug-sniffing dog numbers “are not going down, we’re not reassigning anyone.”Read more: Everything you need to know about cannabis legalization in CanadaCanada readies itself for one of its biggest policy shifts ever with pot legalizationEmployers scrambling to find a way to manage weed in the workplaceEven in forces that are adapting to legalization, change will come slowly.In January, the Winnipeg Police Service’s (WPS) K9 unit added Ivy, a 20-month-old Belgian Malinois, to its roster. Ivy got all the regular training except cannabis odour detection. But all 14 WPS canines, all of whom except Ivy are trained to detect cannabis, will continue working until the end of their careers, the WPS said — instead, change will be grandfathered in as new dogs won’t undergo cannabis training.Since the Calgary Police Service (CPS) said “nearly all̶ ...
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