Club drugs targeted by police dog squads

[Matanuska Thunder]

Courier Mail

Chris Griffith

20jun05

 

Club drugs targeted by police dog squads

 

POLICE dogs will soon be sniffing patrons at Queensland's pubs and clubs as part of a new crackdown on users of heroin, cannabis, cocaine, and amphetamines.

 

Police Minister Judy Spence yesterday confirmed she would prepare legislation to widen police powers to allow dogs to sniff patrons at licensed premises in Queensland.

 

The law will allow officers to take dogs into licensed premises without establishing a belief that drugs are on the premises. Dogs would be capable of detecting not only people carrying drugs but also those who had been in recent contact with them because of odours on their clothes.

 

Ms Spence confirmed police had recently trialled sniffer dogs to "passively" check members of the public for drugs at public places such as railway stations.

 

Ms Spence would not elaborate on where the public searches might take place but vigorously defended the new checks.

 

"These drugs are illegal, they are highly dangerous to the people who use them, and the Government and police are determined to crack down on their use," she said.

 

But civil libertarians fear the laws will mean the next targets of sniffer dogs will be State of Origin matches, Brisbane Lions games, the Ekka, mall cafes, restaurants, shopping centres, buses, university campuses, Schoolies and community festivals.

 

Ms Spence said police dogs were being trained by the Australian Customs Service to perform "passive" drug checks where they did not touch or jump on people or scratch at where the drugs were – they simply sat in front of potential offenders.

 

She said the trial testing of patrons at Toowong railway station on June 9 had been "the first operation of its kind in Queensland".

 

The operation came to public attention because an Irish citizen complained had been wrongly detained and searched after being sniffed for drugs there. He said police found only prescription drugs.

 

Ms Spence said using sniffer dogs in nightclub and hotel precincts would better detection of illegal powdered drugs such as amphetamines.

 

"These drugs are the scourge of the nightclub scene, where dealers prey on young Queenslanders," she said.

 

She said drugs had been found on four of 33 people searched during the Toowong railway station trial.

 

But the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties said the searches were "gesture policing" and would only bust minor users, not drug networks.

 

Vice-president Terry O'Gorman said major drug suppliers would have a "mental impairment" to carry supplies on trains and apprehended minor users would not identify suppliers out of fear of being bashed "or worse".

 

He said clubbers taking drugs such as ecstasy would now risk overdosing by taking their night's dose all at once at home before they leave.

 

"A clubber will now say I'm not going to run the risk of being sniffed while I'm standing in the queue, so I'll take my ecstasy tablets before I leave home," Mr O'Gorman said. "People will run a significant risk of overdose by taking two or three ecstasy pills as they're about to head out."

[Bubble Bags Australia]

"These drugs are illegal, they are highly dangerous to the people who use them, and the Government and police are determined to crack down on their use," she said.

 

Of course its ok for her to be completly hypocritical about cracking down on these dangerous drugs but allowing the government profitable sale of alcohol and toxic chemical laced tobaco to be sold legally. Both of which combined probably kills thousands of people a day in Australia alone.

 

He said clubbers taking drugs such as ecstasy would now risk overdosing by taking their night's dose all at once at home before they leave.

 

"A clubber will now say I'm not going to run the risk of being sniffed while I'm standing in the queue, so I'll take my ecstasy tablets before I leave home," Mr O'Gorman said. "People will run a significant risk of overdose by taking two or three ecstasy pills as they're about to head out."

 

And of course if ecstacy was legal, it would be made in proper labratories with quality control and safety standards and would be harmless as it would be pure MDMA and not something cut with speed or other nasty shit. Its the stuff that the ecstacy is cut with that people OD on, not the actual MDMA itself.

[Pickle]

It doesn't matter how they try to spin it, they are targeting users, not "Mr Bigs".

[raverspec]

WOOHOO!! We can all still do acid and walk around without the cops knowing.

 

[WantDaChronic]

The law will allow officers to take dogs into licensed premises without establishing a belief that drugs are on the premises. Dogs would be capable of detecting not only people carrying drugs but also those who had been in recent contact with them because of odours on their clothes.

 

ok so if im about to catch a train and have smoked a few cones in the morning, im bound to be arrested for drug possession i bet the piggers would use the excuse its in your system, therefore you are in posession

 

"These drugs are the scourge of the nightclub scene, where dealers prey on young Queenslanders," she said.

 

how many pill dealers actually go to clubs and ram thier stash down someone's throat? i dont know of any but that could be because i choose not to get into that kind of shit which brings me to my point, its the user's choice to get high, peer pressure can only go so far so IMO, its not the dealers fault the user is addicted, its the dealers responsibility to buy decent drugs that the user shouldnt OD on now if the dealers were praying on the youngins by spiking their drinks and such, what makes the politicians think they are trying to get a person hooked on the drug? imo it would more likely be some sick rapist preying for their next victim, not a dealer trying to reel in another fish....

 

It doesn't matter how they try to spin it, they are targeting users, not "Mr Bigs".

 

the police can invest mass amounts of money taking out the big wigs of the drug trade and get a single arrest which usually leads to another person taking over and another batch of drugs will soon be on its way...but if they invest that same amount of money and target users, they can get thousands of arrests and make it look like they are really coming down hard on drugs :thumbdown pure politics and nothing more....

 

Of course its ok for her to be completly hypocritical about cracking down on these dangerous drugs but allowing the government profitable sale of alcohol and toxic chemical laced tobaco to be sold legally. Both of which combined probably kills thousands of people a day in Australia alone.

 

well someone has to profit from the lack of drugs, maybe the government believes it should be them and major companies instead of the public :scratchin maybe its because dealing is one of the last occupations that cannot be taxed by the government in any case the government sees a line, on 1 side are the drugs the public loves like weed, eccys, speed, etc. on the other there are pharmacy medicines, cigarettes and alcohol, all of which are legal because the government has controll...

 

it just occured to me the govt considers anything out of its conrtoll bad for the public, therefore they must do everything they can to prevent it. bust the user, they have prevented another person from going out of their controll

[Bubble Bags Australia]

I know it wouldnt be the greatest alternative to the current situation where drugs like E, LSD, Cannabis, Shrooms are illegal, but personally I wouldnt mind if the government wanted to get involved and produce their own E, LSD, Cannabis and Shrooms and get their cut of the profit and still keep it illegal for individuals to produce. Basically the same thing they do with tobacco. I even wouldnt mind paying jacked up govt prices, if it meant being able to go to my local chemist and pick up some tabs, pills and cones

[raverspec]

Well put Meerkat. High grade, quality pharmacuticals.

 

I want to be a pharmacist when I grow up, Daddy.

[devus]

i fucking hate those dogs, on the train line in sydney we stopped a significant sniffer dog operation sufficant enough to remove dogs from the illwarra train line in sydney eastern suburbs for at least one night.

 

as a group we poured pepper, ground up chilli powder, and cannabis leaf all over station and train isleways to remove the dogs.

 

Dogs just kept sniffing and sneezing, many of the dogs left and no dogs wre found past 8pm at night on friday, 4th feburary.

 

I imagine it would have left the police think for once the public doesnt tolerate shit and abuse - it is a waste of tax payers money to search for personal drug users and not use it on tracking importers and dealers.

 

If you are travelling with any sort of drug - attempt to dusguise the smell at least - put the substance in coffee(once or twice in sepeate bags) with a air tight container.

 

If you dont have this, store the drugs in ur undies , police with dogs cannot search you there where doing a general search.

 

At worst if u are caught do not admit what the substance is; it may be speed, dxm or a legal substance which have lower penalities.... this would also increase your chance of you NOT going to court as you are costing the pigs money for testing.

 

-Dev.

[Pure]

If you dont have this, store the drugs in ur undies , police with dogs cannot search you there where doing a general search.

 

At worst if u are caught do not admit what the substance is; it may be speed, dxm or a legal substance which have lower penalities.... this would also increase your chance of you NOT going to court as you are costing the pigs money for testing.

 

-Dev.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

thats not quite true and the dog will most definatly smell it there the dog is the reasonable doubt to search you thats what allot of people forget , if the dog smells drugs on you your no longer an innocent victim your a person who as far as they know is carrying a comercial quantity of drugs , If they don't find anythign in your pockets don't think they won't strip search you because they do but they make it allot less convient for you as you may have to go down to the police station , Even females can be strip searched the major difference thier is that the search MUST be conducted buy a woman and it has to be done at the station

 

best way to avoid the puppies is to carry your drugs higher up and stored in an air sealed container ( one that you have preferably wiped the outside of with some sort of rubbing alchohol but really what are the chances of that ) what I am getting at though is that you don't wanna have it at thier nose level which is already about 100 times more responvice to smell than ours , ( just cause you can't smell it doesn't mean it doesn't stink to high hell )

[jethroqwalrustitty]

"These drugs are illegal, they are highly dangerous to the people who use them"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

since when have they cared about the rights of the public. No attention is payed to your wellbeing atall, "by all means drink and smoke as much as you like" (more dangerous than weed)"just dont take 'soft' drugs or kill yourself quickley". Utterly stupid, they seem to want to stop people taking illegal drugs, answer = legalise

Its the same with the law on suicide, its illegal (like that will stop anyone) the answer to that = give them drugs. There are so many simple explanations to lifes quiries but all politicians seem to do is choose the most comlicated, timewasting option. :smoke