The History of Drug Dogs

K9 drug dogs work closely with their handlers.

Utilized throughout history as a tool in war, security, intimidation and human control, man's best friend, the dog, began to be employed by developing police departments in the 19th century. Over the course of the next 150 years, the animal increasingly began being trained for law enforcement and specific military duties. Today, the dog is one of the main weapons deployed by legal authorities in the ongoing "war against drugs."

History

Due to their excellent sense of smell, dogs are keenly adept at detecting illegal drugs. Israel is believed to have been the first country to utilize dogs to sniff out hidden contraband, with the French following soon after. "In France, the national police started using anti-drug dogs in 1965," reports the Royal Canin Scientific Library of the United Kingdom. The practice was also employed by military police during the Vietnam War to minimize smuggling of drugs back to the United States.

Effects

Spurred by President Richard Nixon's plan to conduct a "War on Drugs," the U.S. Customs Service jumped onto the drug dog bandwagon in 1970. The Drug Enforcement Administration later added its own dogs to the campaign and the approach slowly trickled down to state and local police forces. "Trained to detect heroin, amphetamines, cocaine, hashish, marijuana and, more recently, ecstasy, the dogs annually account for $2 to $3 billion, street value, in drug seizures, with seizures of the personal property of drug dealers worth even more," writes Mark Derr in his book "A Dog's History of America."

Training

A cottage industry has materialized to supply law enforcement with animals proficient in tracking down well-hidden, illegal drugs. "For an all-around type animal to perform in both security and law enforcement functions, dogs have been the answer," states the K9 Global Training Academy, a Texas training school for potential police dogs. "As of now there is no single piece of police equipment that can perform as many functions, or perform as reliably as a well-trained detector dog team."

Non-Police Usage

Law enforcement and governmental officials are not the only ones employing drug dogs to ferret out illegal drugs. According to a 2005 article in Time magazine, businesses, including many Fortune 500 firms, are increasingly contracting with private agencies to allow dogs to sniff for drugs throughout the workplace. The story states the practice has become common in a wide variety of enterprises, from oil rigs to newspaper newsrooms.

Considerations

Technology may allow man to develop dogs more genetically-skilled at the art of drug detection. The pro-marijuana magazine High Times reported in 2009 that the South Korean Customs Service had begun deploying cloned drug dogs. "Six genetic duplicates of a single Labrador Retriever have been working at the country's main Inchon International airport and three other customs checkpoints," says the magazine. The report was attributed to a released statement from the South Korean government, which hoped the cloning plan would minimize the cost of training drug dogs.

References

• The Royal Canin Society: Drug Dogs
• High Times magazine: South Korea Deploys Cloned Drug-sniffing Dogs
• Time magazine: Battling Drugs on the Job
• A Dog's History of America; Mark Derr; North Point Press; September 15, 2005
• K9 Global Training Academy: History of Drug Dogs