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No, this isn’t an onion article. I wish it were. Sadly, it’s all too real. According to a recent article from a Bloomington Illinois newspaper, the Pantagraph, some police officers in the state are so against marijuana becoming legalized, they are now threatening to euthanize all the marijuana-sniffing K-9 dogs unless pot stays illegal.
In the latest example of idiocy comes from good ole Illinois (The “arrest me” state). Yep, police in the Land of Lincoln are so upset at the prospect of legalizing marijuana that they now seem to be holding their own K-9 dogs hostage. Think Blazing Saddles here, “Come any closer and I’ll shoot the *&%#!@”.
It’s true, officials are now saying that all K-9 dogs would need to be “put down” should the state legalize pot. Retraining the dogs is just too hard, say police. Plus, the dogs haven’t been adequately socialized and cops say they can’t be trusted to make it on the outside.
Here’s The Crazy Story:
There are approximately 275 trained narcotic K-9s in Illinois, with each well-trained pot sniffer costing $8000-$10,000 dollars just to acquire. And that’s just the cost for the K-9, which does not include maintenance costs. Replacing the dogs would cost millions, and Chad Larner, the director of Maron County’s K-9 Training Academy, said “retraining” the dogs would be “extreme abuse.”
Extreme Abuse? Sounds Like An Oprah Episode
“At that argument, they’re trained on five different odors,” explained the Normal Police Department’s assistant police chief, Steve Petrilli, a former K-9 handler. “Once they’re programmed, you can’t just deprogram them.”
“The dogs are also trained not to be social,” which led Larner to comment that “a number” of the K-9s will have to be euthanized if marijuana is legalized. Shoot first, think things through later. Much later. Or maybe never.
Do The Dogs Really Have To Be Euthanized?
Other states have legalized and they didn’t have to kill the K-9 dogs. Some of the dogs can easily be retrained to sniff other illegal substances. Some of them can remain useful in rooting out large quantities of marijuana that still break the law. Some of them can be given away or even sold to states that have chosen not to legalize pot. Now there’s an idea. Raise some cash by selling the K-9 dogs to Iowa for example.
You have to ask yourself, have we really come this far? Do we need to resort to emotion as a way of taking a stand? How are police officers protecting and serving the public by killing innocent dogs?
We’re not talking about total cultural destruction here. Sure, there are risks. But with marijuana we’re talking about an herb with many health benefits. Hundreds and hundreds, in fact, with more being discovered all the time.
Law enforcement always positions pot this way. It’s vintage in fact. They ratchet up the potential “harm” and “danger “of smoking it to the point where they lose allsense of perspective and proportionality.
Can we lie and emote our way to back to societal sanity? What would Andy and Barney do in this situation? They sure wouldn’t kill the dogs in Mayberry if pot were legalized there.
