ARVADA, Colo. (WTHR) - Legal pot is putting some Colorado police officers out of work.
About 20 percent of the state's drug-sniffing K-9s could be forced into early retirement, since their services are no longer needed. That means their expensive training may be going to waste.
"Most of those dogs are anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 alone and that's without training. If you get one that's fully trained, you're looking at $10,000-$15,000," said Brian Laas with the Arvada Police Department.
Officers are now training new dogs to sniff out other types of drugs which are still illegal, like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ecstasy. The Colorado Police K-9 Association is working to adopt out the pot-sniffing dogs and send them to states where marijuana is still illegal.