The dangers of drug misuse are one of the biggest concerns for staff and parents of young people still in education, and K9 security is being hailed as a major factor in tackling this, but the role that security dogs play in tackling drug misuse in education is not straightforward and has two very different angles.
Recreational drug use, coupled with the rise in county lines drug networks – where gangs coerce young people into transporting drugs to other regions to bypass local police authorities – means young people are more exposed to the dangers of drug misuse than ever before. But schools, colleges and universities are attempting to tackle this by using dog patrols with a dual purpose; to both detect drugs and to carry out important awareness raising.
Drug awareness programmes highlight the dangers of drug misuse
Dog patrols have been recruited as a useful resource by local authorities to become a high profile deterrent to drug misuse on site, and to carry out drug sweeps in classrooms in discreet fashion while vital drug education classes are being carried out. Drug awareness programmes highlight the dangers of drug misuse, how county line networks operate and recruit and how the law is enforced when drugs are detected at events such as festivals and in pubs, bars and nightclubs.
This is proving to be a successful element of drug awareness education and the presence of K9 security is effective in detecting drugs being used in educational establishments, as a high profile or low profile presence as desired, but is also sufficiently flexible to be able to adapt to the circumstances of the educational institution. Many schools and colleges have a different character and identity, and the dog security teams can adapt their services to the specific needs of the young people there. It is also being found that dog security teams delivering drug awareness and education in this way are extremely popular with young people, and this method is catching their attention and therefore having a bigger impact.
A big advantage of using dog security in this way is to make an early intervention in preventing drug misuse without criminalising young people, and hence dog security has become an effective preventive measure when it comes to managing and reducing drug misuse in the UK.
Effective class-based education in drug awareness
At React K9 we have SIA-licenced and NASDU-trained dog handlers who are also DBS-checked. This means we can go into educational institutions and talk to young people about the dangers of drugs, using their skills, knowledge and experience and explaining how security dogs are an effective deterrent against drug misuse. Our security dogs are trained to pick-up different scents and to detect specific substances and with a nose that is 10,000 times more sensitive than a human’s, dogs are extremely effective in identifying drugs in these situations.
If you are operating a school, college, university or any other educational establishment with young people, and wish to operate drug awareness and education programmes, contact our team at React K9. We have specialist dog security teams who can visit your premises to carry out drug awareness training, while also detecting any ongoing drug misuse on site. This has proved to be an effective resource at many schools and colleges, so if it can work for you then contact our team today.
