POLICE have plans in place to control any major outbreak of violence at today's Big Day Out concert and have warned they will not tolerate drug use.
Detective Chief Inspector Tony Cooke, the Auburn police crime manager, said yesterday the main priority was to ensure that everyone attending had a good time.
"We have spoken to organisers and they are anticipating between 50,000 to 55,000 people, so there will be a significant police presence on the ground," he said.
Police will have a command post on top of the Novotel building at Sydney Olympic Park, with views of the showground, and undercover officers at the venue.
Police did not expect a repeat of last year's harassment of some festival-goers by people forcing them to kiss the Australian flag, but officers from the newly formed Public Order Squad, trained in riot control, would be on standby.
Drug sniffer dogs would be at Olympic Park railway station and at the showground's entry gates.
Revelations of the security plans came as the NSW Greens claimed sniffer dogs provoked dangerous behaviour by drug users. Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said users might swallow all their drugs to avoid being caught, and risked dying.
"Concert-goers are taking all their drugs at once before leaving home, switching to more dangerous 'odour-free' drugs and purchasing drugs from strangers at the venue to avoid carrying drugs," she said.
A report last year by the NSW Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, said sniffer dogs were relatively ineffective and their presence could prompt people to take all their drugs at once.
Ms Rhiannon said stickers would be handed out in the crowd saying: "Sniff Off!"
Mr Cooke warned that police would pursue anyone planning to take drugs into the showground. "Prohibited drugs are not to be taken to the event, not to be used, and we will be there in force … to attempt to arrest those intent on taking drugs into the venue."
Paul Dillon, information manager for the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW, said one of the dangers was that drug users would opt to take drugs they thought dogs could not detect.
One such drug - GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) - was risky because the difference between a tolerable dose and an overdose was slight.
"It has caused great problems at events where people … don't really understand the risk in it," he said.
"They [the users] see the dog coming and they pull it [their drugs] out and take it all. I have worked at many dance events in the last 15 years and this has become a major issue."
The Police Minister, John Watkins, said: "The Government makes no apology for using police dogs to detect people carrying illicit drugs into the [festival]."
Remember cops hate touching crotches, make sure you moan, 'yeah, mmm.. a bit to the left' when they pat you down, they hate that. 
