Whether looking out for your best friend at home, or being cautious not to waste the time of any police dogs, you may have concerns about your weed vape getting you into trouble. Drug sniffing dogs are commonly attracted to the scent of drugs, so what happens if you’re legally carrying some?
Can dogs smell weed vape? Yes! Drug dogs are trained and worked to detect even the smallest trace amounts of a substance. In your marijuana vape devices, this can be as little as 0.3% THC and the dog’s sense of smell will tell it that you are carrying an illicit substance.
While we are certain none of you reading are looking to smuggle illegal drugs beyond a security checkpoint, it can still be difficult to pass drug sniffer dogs even now that marijuana has seen some legalization.
Drug detection training doesn’t discriminate, and legal drugs are picked up on all the time by police drug sniffer dogs.
While great for stopping illegal drugs and illicit drugs making their way to the street market, random drug searches can be a hassle you’re looking to avoid if you have certifications for drug use.
Marijuana prescriptions for medical use, cannabis vape pens, both are perfectly legal and yet can prompt a search for the presence of drugs on an individual.
How Strong is a Dog’s Sense of Smell?
Dogs have an acute sense of smell about 10,000 times better than humans. This makes them very good at hunting.
However, recent developments in the modern world including advanced police funding and the War on Drugs have brought forward dogs for finding dead bodies, and drug detection dogs.
Most of you will be familiar with a dog’s sense of smell when you take your dogs for a walk. They use this sense to find their way home, and they also use their sense of smell to sniff out food.
Dogs are also great at detecting scents that humans find objectionable or that scare them. For this reason, some dogs are trained to detect illicit drugs or explosives.
Their powerful scent detection is useful for law enforcement and for security purposes. If the police have a missing person’s case for example, dogs can be used to find and track humans who are lost in the wilderness.
For those who use marijuana vape pens, this keen sense of smell will often lead to searches for possession of illegal drugs, and time wasting by security personnel.
Their sophisticated sense of smell works thanks to an incredible amount of olfactory receptors, making them perfect to train for numerous substances with particular scents.
Can Dogs Smell Marijuana?
A dog’s strong sense of smell works all the time, meaning that your dog at home can smell when you’re getting high.
Using hemp derived vape cartridges for those quitting cigarettes, smoking recreationally, or making the most of medicinal marijuana can all be smelled by man’s best friend.
Unless trained like drug dogs however, your pet at home is unlikely to react in any meaningful way to the scent of drugs and cannabis vape pens.
Fans of vape pens don’t need to worry, as your dog may be pretty smart with a good nose, but he doesn’t know enough to tell what you’re doing.
Can Drug Dogs Detect Weed Vape Cartridges?
If you’re passing some drug dogs while carrying a legal hemp vape cartridge, you should prepare yourself to be stopped.
Police dog handlers will be able to quickly identify when their canine companion has picked up the scent of drugs, and they’ll begin the process for drug detection.
If a dog finds a scent with drugs, one of two things will happen: The dog may alert their handler with barking aggressively, or it’ll jump up and nudge you repeatedly to mark you as a suspect.
Thankfully, so long as you aren’t carrying illegal and dangerous substances, you can quickly get away from a drug search.
Scents with drugs still include marijuana vape pens even in legalized states, so be polite and let the search continue without resistance. You are likely to still be searched, even after you explain the situation to an officer.
Can You Avoid Being Sniffed by a Drug Dog?
A common myth and rumor online is that drug dogs can be avoided. Using some cheap tricks like a vacuum sealed bag or masking the scent with something else powerful smelling.
The truth of the matter is however, neither of these will work. Dogs trained to identify illicit and dangerous substances can hunt a very specific scent.
In nature this guides them home, but in drug handling this lets them sniff past any masking smells to identify the drugs at hand. Including hemp derived vape cartridges.
No matter how you pack a high quality vape pen, if it contains THC then you’ll be sniffed out by a police dog. Any THC or CBD containing vape juice flavor can still be found no matter how you package it.
So how do you avoid getting sniffed by drug dogs? Well the obvious and common sense solution is to not take a cannabis vape to locations with security checkpoints and drug dog units.
Obviously this can be easily avoided, but if you need marijuana for medical reasons then you will just have to accept a search and move on with your day.
If this is the case, be sure to bring evidence of your medical need and prescription, to avoid misunderstandings with any officers where cannabis remains not fully legalized.
How Accurate are Drug Dogs?
Drug dogs are trained to detect illegal drugs and illegally obtained prescription drugs. Most countries use dogs to find illegal substances.
However, you may be curious how accurate they really are? Surely even a dog gets a false positive sometimes, right?
The reliability of drug dogs is difficult to measure because it depends on so many variables. The dogs’ training, handlers, and environment all affect their ability to find drugs.
The dogs’ handlers can also play a significant role in the dogs’ success. Training, food, and care for the dogs are all important factors
False positives occur, more often than not, when the handler misinterprets the dog’s findings. This of course leads to someone innocent being pulled over.
Dog handlers must be familiar with the dogs they are training. This will allow the handlers to understand the dogs’ behaviors and train the dogs accordingly.
Dogs are very social, so they thrive when they are in a comfortable environment. Drug dogs are no different. They respond well to their handlers and will work harder when they are happy and comfortable.
Can Dogs Detect the Difference Between THC and CBD?
Cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are two of the most well-known cannabinoids that are found in cannabis. Both CBD and THC are present in marijuana, but the concentration of each compound varies.
Different concentrations and potencies of both cannabinoids mean they produce different levels of scent, making it difficult for a drug dog in theory.
Dogs have a keen sense of smell and can sense the difference between THC and CBD, and they are often trained for both cannabinoids.
Most full spectrum vape cartridges will usually use one or the other, but THC remains the most popular in legal cannabis products.
Either way, no matter which you purchase both can be picked up by the well placed nose of a police dog.
Many countries have mandatory drug dog training for their police dogs. This means that they are very familiar with the drugs they are trained to find.
