Partygoers are not deterred from taking drugs by the use of sniffer dogs, nor do the dogs help police catch drug dealers – these are the findings of a new report from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC).
The Daily Telegraph reports that the NDARC study included interviews with 100 regular ecstasy users and found that 64% of respondents had seen sniffer dogs at least twice in the last six months. Of those people, 89% said that they were more careful if they knew dogs would be at an event, 51% said they hid their drugs better and 42% walked away. Only 4% said that they would throw their drugs away – the same number of people who said they would take all drugs on their possession to avoid detection.
Only 25% of experts who took part in the survey said that drug detection dogs were useful. Almost 50% believed they created more harm than good, were ineffective and only used so that Police were seen to be taking action against drugs.
“The opinion was also taken that drug detention dogs were ineffective because they aided in the detection of people who had in their possession small amounts of drugs for personal use, rather than high-end suppliers and manufacturers,” said the report.
The report echoes the findings from the 2004 Report from the NSW Ombudsman, which found that only 19 people were successfully prosecuted for drug supply out of 9400 positive indications.
The findings have hit at the same time as claims from QLD Big Day Out organisers, who said that Police ambushed their patrons over the weekend, greeting punters at the gates with sniffer dogs.
The Gold Coast’s police chief rejected the claims, telling the Brisbane Times that there were ample warnings in the lead-up to Sunday’s event and that the vast majority of the 55,000 fans obeyed the rules. Police took action against 126 people, 75 of them over drug-related issues.
Originally published on samesame
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