I take a somewhat neutral position on illicit drugs because there are problems in this world that are much worse than someone who engages in recreational use. So let's say that you are on your way home from an exciting vacation in Amsterdam and somewhere on your person or luggage you might have some remnants of the fun and games that took place.
Now you can avoid an embarrassing search and seizure at the airport gate when the dogs are on the scene. The container can detect the presence of a dog from more than 100 feet away alerting you to take the necessary precautions to avoid getting caught. If you are holding, you can dump it. If you have residual odors on your clothes, you can spray air freshener on everything.-- Jscotty, Jan 11 2010 I'm pretty sure that neither the UK nor the US have yet made it illegal to be carrying illicit odours.
And, incidentally, how does this device detect a dog 100 feet away?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 11 2010 It has technology similar to that of electronic air monitors used to detect chemical weapons or explosives. Dogs have a very unique scent and when the chemical composition is detected for the doggie breath odor or it detects the chemical makeup of the characteristic dog smell (like a wet dog but not as extreme), it alerts the user.-- Jscotty, Jan 11 2010 (Love the title, wish the post made more sense.)
One scenario the poster didn't raise is that the luggage's owner might not be near the luggage at the time of sniffing, and might abandon their luggage as a result of the alert, avoiding identification when they pick it up. (Assuming it is possible to transport luggage under a false name, which I guess is still possible, although perhaps not as easy as it used to be.)
Jscotty, the only effective way of using an air freshener to avoid detection by a drug sniffing dog involves hitting the poor canine over the head with a big, big can of it. Otherwise, that would be the system used by every drug smuggler in the world! (And I guess we could just use air freshener sniffing dogs instead.)-- jutta, Jan 12 2010 If the dog is accompanied by a human walking at 2mph, I think the dog is going to reach your detector only a very very few seconds after the smell.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 12 2010 I could picture some scenarios where it would be useful for the transporter, addict, or pusher, like remote cargo holds, for instance. But it does seem like a WIBNI, or maybe even a WIBSI (wouldn't it be strange if)
Drug-sniffing dogs are extremely good at their job. My sister once bought a used duffle bag at a garage sale and found out it wouldn't pass airport security due to traces of drug residue. Never tried to travel with it again.-- RayfordSteele, Jan 12 2010 I have read that dogs cannot smell through something if it is truly airtight. Therefore, some rather ingenious packaging would make better sense. Search and seizure is much more than embarrassing...-- xandram, Jan 12 2010 The problem with a drug detecting dog detector is that you would get a lot of false-positives due to the presence of dogs who would get excited by the smell of sausages but ignore any illicit drugs.
The presence of smells that might have been freshly applied to counter a drugs dogs could provide a sufficient reason for a law enforcement officer to instigate a drugs search. Aniseed is the classic anti-dog scent, often used to sabotage fox hunts, for example, and I've seen it being discussed as a give-away on police procedural reality TV programmes.-- Aristotle, Jan 12 2010 This relies on a magic dog particle detector.-- tatterdemalion, Jan 12 2010 First, it can "sniff" the dogs by some other means, like an rss twitter aggregator. In the case of an airport, other people who have registered the Dog Sniffing Drugs portable device, and who, presumably, are part of some frequent flyer elite, have reported to an online database that there are doggies where you are. Push notifications to the device let it know that it is time to execute!
Second, in last minuite situations, a chemical washes into the drug chamber which reacts with the cocaine, transforming the substance in your pocket to an inert goop.**
Needless to say, if this is a conspicuous reaction (which it probably is), it is a non starter.
for the title[+]-- fishboner, Jan 12 2010 my only regret is that I have but one bun to give-- fishboner, Jan 14 2010 //you would get a lot of false-positives due to the presence of dogs who would get excited by the smell of sausages// And thus the answer presents itself. Always carry a string of sausages hanging loose about your person when travelling by air. At the first sign of canine excitement, drop the sausages and, in the subsequent confusion, claim a draw and continue on your way.-- DrBob, Jan 14 2010 Sausages are a bane of the sniffer dog trainer's life but they do try to train out the excitement-over- food aspect of a dog's responses. Note that high- level dog training feats can involve dogs carrying food items in their mouth without consuming them.
However performing some kind of improbable, but not implausible, food/scent based accident might be an effective way of disrupting the dog. Maybe activating a hand-held instant sausage cooking device (while releasing extra scent from a hidden source) and dropping the whole contraption might work!-- Aristotle, Jan 15 2010 //a hand-held instant sausage cooking device// aha! now that sounds like a good idea!-- hippo, Jan 15 2010 I foresee a massive surge in people claiming their profession as 'international sausage salesman'.-- DrBob, Jan 15 2010 If drug-sniffing dogs are trained to ignore sausages, smugglers could hide drugs inside them.
However as a vegetarian I can't condone the production of sausages, mule or not.-- Loris, Jan 15 2010 random, halfbakery