Drug dogs in the baggage claim!

[immoderate]

I flew in to Ft. Lauderdale this evening. When i went to claim my baggage, the Sheriff's Dept was having a dog sniff everyone's bags. I'm assuming it was for drugs, not explosives, because these were folks getting off the plane. The flights involved were arriving from Dallas and LA.

I've not seen this before. Anyone out there have this happen? Could they be searching for anything other than marijuana? Lots of people thought this was outrageous. I didn't see if they caught anyone.

--IMM

[4morewars]

1. They can do whatever they want.

Didn't you know we're at war ?

[indigobusiness]

2. That happened to me in Miami. ..returning from Costa Rica...

Almost had a cow.

[medeak]

3. my golden retriever was sniffing bags

at Phoenix airport..poor east Indian family had melt down thinking she was drug dog.

They must have had food in luggage.

[mulethree]

4. Had that coming off a cruise ship in Miami

Dogs smelling all the baggage and one at the bottom of the gang plank.

Dog said hello to me from about 40 ft away. Nice dog. But that means you gotta go in the john with a policeman to get your underwear inspected. My wife nearly croaked.

Dog seemed interested in my belt pack, It hadn't held a dooby in months.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. On some internat'l flights they sniff for food items (and for good reason)

Even from Hawaii (or maybe it is into Hawaii) certain little critters that are harmless back where they came from could be devastating here. Nematodes, for example.

But on a domestic flight?:shrug:

[Lexingtonian]

6. FDA may have had a tip

And a lot of luggage gets transferred to such domestic flights from international ones in Dallas (from Latin America) and LA (from Latin America and East Asia).

I've assumed for all the time I've been flying that luggage invariably gets drugsniffed at Kennedy and LAX and most of the haughty little places that call themselves variants of 'Backwater International Airport'. It would be too embarrassing for the FDA for stuff to get through the first two in bulk and all the provincial places have a subtext to the players in the game of Vulnerable Back Door: Please Test Us.

So don't forget to do your laundry and plastic baggie sealing properly....

[Educated Guess]

7. there were drug sniffing dogs when

we landed in Australia, and then NZ. I thought it was pretty weird, but luckily i was clean. We didn't see any in LAX when we got back to the states, though.

[immoderate]

8. Hi and Welcome to DU!

I don't know if others are aware that Florida is particularly nuts about this stuff. I was stopped on the road when I first got here in a U-Haul that had no tag light.

A few minutes later, they had the dog sniffing around the truck. In FL, possession of 22 grams is a felony. I think they mine this to keep the jails full, and the voting lists restricted.

--IMM

[newyawker99]

10. Hi Educated Guess!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[elehhhhna]

9. Thay also sniff for cash.

[DrWeird]

11. How do you know it wasn't explosives?

Dogs can search for all kinds of things. SOP in airports.

[Zero Gravitas]

19. Explosives

if they were sniffing for explosives then the DHS are dumber than we thought... they were sniffing bags that had just come off the plane!

[Irishladdie]

12. Very Normal

They do it all the time, the drug runners fly it, not walk it. Also they use to carry it on there bodies, wrapped up so the dogs can't sniff it of course. Which is easy to do. The dugs could also be sniffing for explosives. Drugs are usually pretty easy to conceal in and hide from drug sniffing dogs. Although it's much easier to take anything illegal onto your own private plane! :).....

[immoderate]

15. Wrapped up like how?

--IMM

[msgadget]

13. It's a good thing

to have security at airports, especially if they're sniffing for explosives.

[immoderate]

14. I could see sniffing for explosives...

if it's before people board the planes. But this was at the baggage claim, after people had debarked.

--IMM

[msgadget]

16. Ah, I see your point but

can we really say they're lax on security if we blanch over a drug/explosive sniffing dog at either end of the trip?

Then again, maybe I'm missing the whole point... Is the fact they might be sniffing for drugs objectionable?

[immoderate]

17. In a free society it is.

--IMM

[msgadget]

18. Gotcha.

:thumbsup:

[immoderate]

20. Let me explain a little further.

When I was in college ('60s)I fancied myself a libertarian conservative, and I had the opinion that people should be free to do whatever they wanted as long as it didn't infringe on the rights of others. I had no experience at all with drugs, but it was my opinion that they shouldn't be illegal, based on what I understood to be the ideals of a free society.

There were people who didn't believe that I had never used drugs, because I had that opinion. I have since had some experience and have not changed that opinion in general, even though I don't identify with most people that call themselves conservative any longer. Labels, of course can be tricky.

Back then, drugs were considered a social problem. During the Nixon administration it was demonized to be a criminal problem. You might also be aware that most of the problems with drugs are the result of prohibition. Just consider that there are millions of people who have to carry around a criminal record because they smoked a joint.

--IMM

[msgadget]

21. Thanks for that

I was the companion to a wheelchair-bound person asked to exit that chair so searchers in Florida could check the cushion for drugs so this isn't an issue I dismiss with, 'oh, get over it, drugs are illegal anyway'.

I think the gov't would do more than sniff luggage if they really and truly wanted to halt all drug traffic into the US. There are more casual users and small-time dealers arrested yearly than major brokers. What are they, invisible?

[immoderate]

22. I think we agree that

the drug hunt is a diversion of valuable human resources.

--IMM

[msgadget]

23. Yep, in certain instances.

[bullimiami]

24. the dogs are always in miami

in the customs international bag claim.

i was in and out of FLL international terminal a couple of times in the last month and didnt see dogs. I got the customs shakedown bonus plan on the way back last time though.