Dogs sniff out synthetic drugs in jail
The race to stub out the spread of synthetic substances is on and New Zealand prisons are no exception.
The Department of Corrections has trained five dog teams this year to identify the psychoactive substances.
Trends outside prison are replicated inside on a smaller scale, central region dog section supervisor Steve Shadbolt said.
‘‘We are trying to speed the process up as it’s coming, it’s here, but it’s going to get worse. So we are preparing ourselves for the upcoming battle. So we have prepared ourselves and we can also assist police should they require prison.’’
Nineteen people have been admitted to hospital in the past two weeks and last Monday a Christchurch man died from searches outside of what is believed to be the result of synthetic cannabis use.
Shadbolt’s 6-year-old dog Ciggie has added new psychoactive substances to his repertoire, having already been trained to sniff out cellphones and tobacco. Based at Waikeria, Shadbolt and Ciggie also cover Spring Hill and Tongariro correction facilities.
Contraband is in all the country’s prisons. That includes cellphones, drugs, shanks and nicotine patches, which are a hot commodity. They sell for around $10 a patch and the inmates break them down to smoke.
Waikeria prison covers about 1200 hectares, and to stop contraband getting in is an enormous task, which is why detector dogs are useful.