Smells suspicious

[Mugu]

Amber Marks, The Guardian

I was walking into Fulham Broadway underground station a couple of years ago when I saw police officers holding dogs on leashes, encouraging them to sniff the crotches of passing commuters. What, I asked one of the policemen, was the purpose of this operation?

"I can't say," he replied.

I explained that I was a lawyer with a professional interest in crime. He looked at me with something approaching interest. "Well, you know that most crime is caused by drugs?"

"Yes," I lied.

"These dogs can smell the smallest trace of a drug on a person. Once the dog has picked up a scent of drugs on them, we have the right to search them. If we find drugs on them, we can then search their homes and in their homes we usually find all manner of incriminating articles."



Complete article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/31/internationalcrime

[zonmoy]

1. figures that the drug war is used in this way to feed the prison industrial industry.