Sniffer dogs

In the news today is the case of a family who were at the end of their tether with their son who was taking drugs in the house. They finally employed a company who brought in sniffer dogs to find his drugs. Another family, in despair because they could not get their eldest son to stop taking drugs in the house, and afraid that their two younger sons would follow suit and copy their big brother, the parents banished their son from the house. A year later he had cleaned up his act and was allowed back in the family home. Maybe the shock of being expelled was enough to make him see sense and start on the straight and narrow path to healthy living. Now, he is back in college studying to make himself a useful member of society.

Given the huge scale of drug taking now, families and schools are taking desperate steps to stop this potential killer from invading and ruining our children and their future prospects. Families are taking the drastic step of employing private companies to search for the drugs using sniffer dogs. A case was shown where the dog was brought into the lad's bedroom and a search was conducted. Of course the dog found the stash immediately. Once drugs are found in the house by a parent, the substance must be handed in to the police, or the parent could be charged and prosecuted. If they don't hand them in to the police, the parent can be charged with supplying the drug, and of aiding and abetting in the use of a banned substance.

This is the length that some parents have to go to in their desperate battle to try to get their loved ones off drugs. I'm sure it will be debated long and hard as to whether you should turn your son or daughter in to the police when they become addicted, but if it means that the offender will receive the shock that they need to get them off drugs then it must be worth it.

Schools as well are turning to sniffer dogs in their battle with drugs.

The detection dogs are able to discern individual scents even when the scents are combined or masked by other odours. In an Australian jail a detection dog foiled an attempt to smuggle in drugs that had been hidden in a woman's bra and smeared with pepper, coffee and evil smelling vapour rub. A sniffer dog's sense of smell is 2000 times more sensitive than that of humans.

Italian drug prevention officers managed to stop five travellers at an airport who had hidden drugs in a Play Station, in cheese and in chocolate boxes.

There is some idea that the dogs themselves become addicted to drugs in their constant search for them. Some articles I've read imply that dog handlers feed their dog with the drug, to an amount varying between one gram and three grams a day. Dog handlers are incensed by this implication. One handler said that if he fed his dog a gram of cocaine it would kill him. Handlers love their dogs. There is no way that they would want to harm their dog.

We all know that the drug scene is a terrible scourge, with people's lives at stake. It's sad that some people are willing to supply lethal doses of drugs to kids, to get them hooked, causing misery and suffering, just for money.