So you’re heading out on the town, you’re gonna meet your friends at a club and you’ve got your party favours stashed in your pocket. You’ve been waiting all week to let your hair down. You decided not to take your drugs before you went out because you wanted to relax first.
Instead you’ll take some of your drugs half an hour before your favorite DJ came on, and some a bit later at the next club. You’ve been taking drugs for quite a while and you know the sensible thing to do is to pace yourself so you can enjoy your night and keep in control.
You line up waiting to get into the club, and then all of a sudden, from out of nowhere, you see some police with a dog heading your way. You start to sweat because you are holding. You’re feeling intimidated, scared and completely paranoid. You are not only holding for yourself, but for your two friends who are already inside. Will the dog detect my stash? Will they think I’m a dealer? Your mind is racing. Everyone in the queue is getting edgy. The dog comes up to you and sits down beside your feet. The police approach you and ask you to turn out your pockets. Your night is about to end before it starts.
How you conduct yourself during this uncomfortable and sometimes scary situation will determine how many offences you can be charged with. If you are in this situation, and you are holding, chances are you are going to get busted. So it’s all a matter of just remaining calm and following directions from the police. Whatever you do, DON’T RUN, remain calm and be co-operative.
Are sniffer dogs effective?
A recent report by the NSW Ombudsman into the use of sniffer dogs in NSW, Australia, has found that “...despite the best efforts of police officers, the use of drug detection dogs has proven to be an ineffective tool for detecting drug dealers. Overwhelmingly, the use of drug detection dogs has led to public searches of individuals in which no drugs were found, or to the detection of (mostly young) adults in possession of very small amounts of cannabis for personal use.These findings have led us to question whether the Drug Dogs Act will ever provide a fair, efficacious and cost effective tool to target drug supply. Given this, we have recommended that the starting point, when considering this report, is to review whether the Drug Dogs Act should be retained at all”.*
The Queensland Council for Civil liberties believes that the use of sniffer dogs is nothing more than stunt policing, a gross waste of police resources and a gross violation of the right to privacy. As well, the 75% of people being searched who are innocent are being humiliated in public and having their privacy trashed for the sake of scoring cheap political points.
Sniffer dogs put the bite on harm reduction
A big concern that those of us in the health sector have, is that sniffer dogs actually work against the harm minimisation principles that drive our services. Particularly in the southern States of Australia, where the use of drug sniffer dogs is wide spread, some people are taking ALL of their drugs before they go out, therefore increasing the chances of having an overdose. If you are going to take your drugs out with you, just be aware that dogs maybe around. And also, don’t hold onto other people’s drugs to reduce the chances of getting charged with supply.
It is interesting to note that in NSW most of the people charged with supply were carrying for their friends. Please consider the risks of taking all your drugs at once before you leave the house. Getting arrested with a small quantity of drugs and having your night ruined, it could be argued, is better than overdosing and ending up in hospital, or even worse, the morgue.
* Review of the Police Powers (Drug Detection Dogs) Act 2001 by the NSW Ombudsman
GO TO THE HOME PAGE
This article has been reproduced from http://www.quihn.org
by courtesy of QuIHN who hold copyright.
Please note that copyright varies throughout the site. If you would like
to reproduce information from this site, please note the author and contact
them.