Mr Blonde
Bluelighter
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By Greg Stolz
January 18, 2009 04:45pm
DRUG sniffer dogs have been unleashed at the Big Day Out on the Gold Coast for the first time, and police have made scores of arrests.
Sniffer dogs have been used by Queensland police since 2006 but had not been deployed before at the huge touring music festival, which hit the Gold Coast Parklands today.
But police upped the ante against drug users after making about 30 arrests at the recent Summerfieldayze festival on the Gold Coast.
Dog handlers made regular sweeps of entry points into the Big Day Out throughout the day and dozens of patrons were arrested, mainly for possession of ecstasy pills and cannabis.
Police also arrested several suspected drug dealers carrying larger quantities of pills.
Undercover police also worked the 50,000-strong crowd, making arrests for drug, alcohol and street offences.
But organisers say the big crowd has been largely well-behaved and relatively mild weather has helped patrons keep their cool.
The Big Day Out continues into the night with headline acts including the Arctic Monkeys, The Prodigy and old rocker Neil Young.
I was at BDO Gold Coast as part of the RaveSafe team, and talked to a few people who had seen the dogs and gotten past them or saw people getting pulled up for possession.
The big problem the dogs pose is that when people see them they may drop all their goodies at once in a panic, leading to an OD.
As they said in the article though, it was an overcast, cool day mostly which helped with people in the crowds and it was a good day for the most part. :D