Drug sniffing dogs

Edith Abraham

Unfortunately, the most likely result of this initiative is a further backlog in the already overcrowded services which would prefer to be treating people with real drug problems, rather than those unfortunate enough to have had a cute puppy sit next to them while out on the town having fun.

THE latest government ‘initiative’ of introducing drug sniffing dogs to patrol Tasmania’s nightclubs has been claimed by the Police Minister, Mr Cox, as being aimed at making Tasmania a safer place (Mercury, 4 June).

Where is the evidence that this is the case?

All this initiative is likely to do is make criminals of young people and damage their career prospects. In other jurisdictions where this has been implemented there has been no evidence that it has done anything to reduce drug related harms at the level of the individual user, rather young people are simply being caught up in the dragnet of law enforcement while the amount of illicit drugs available on the streets has not diminished.

The drug manufacturers and drug industry entrepreneurs are the ones we should be targeting, not individual young people experimenting with drugs – as young people tend to do.

Reducing harm at the individual level is what good drug policy based on evidence and the principles of harm minimisation should be about. This initiative suggests that the Bartlett Government and Tasmania Police are not interested in good public policy but rather good publicity stunts. Imagine how many treatment places for people with real drug problems could be funded with the money invested in this latest stunt.

Unfortunately, the most likely result of this initiative is a further backlog in the already overcrowded services which would prefer to be treating people with real drug problems, rather than those unfortunate enough to have had a cute puppy sit next to them while out on the town having fun.

Edith Abraham