For cases coming before Tennessee courts regarding a drug sniffing dog, one needs to read State v. Ariana Majors, 2021 WL 4347273, 2021 Tenn. Crim. App. Lexis 450, (Tenn. Crim. App 9/24/2021), a case I won on appeal in September 2021. In Majors, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a Montgomery County Circuit Court ruling excluding evidence from a drug sniffing dog because police cannot show whether the dog alerted to illegal marijuana or legal hemp. The dog was trained to alert to marijuana and several other illegal substances, but not trained to distinguish marijuana from hemp. This distinction is vital because a drug sniffing dog could be alerting to a crime or a legal act. The police cannot tell which smell caught the dog’s attention, so probably cause for a warrantless search is lacking. If you wish to discuss your Clarksville criminal case, call the Law Office of Gregory D. Smith, 931/647-1299.