Morning.

I am hoping to get some help with something, this will more then likely be a year long project.

I am in the army as a Military Working Dog Handler and right now I am working with a Narc dog. The problem I have is that I am deployed to Qatar and there is no mission for me here. There is no mission because we can not get a drug kit into country due to their custom laws. So naturally I would love to use synthetic drugs because there is nothing illegal about them. The problem is that its against our regulations to use them.

What I am hoping to do is change that. I do honestly think that we should be able to use them for training. I know it is common practice for Narc handlers to use rags for training if they want to plant it somewhere for a while and not guard it, or if its raining out and they don't want to damage the training aid.

-I am not trying to replace real drug training aids with synthetic training aids.
-I would be a good substitute for any time or place where using real drugs is not permitted or not safe.
-Certifications should still be on real narcotics
-Synthetic drugs should not be the primary training aids.


So what is this thread about? What I am hoping to do is get some help from other law-enforcement officers (or anyone that can help really) to find case laws on using real narcotics vs synthetics. I am also hoping to find any memo's from "Expert Witnesses" on the subject. I know everyone has an opinion, and I welcome it, but I am only looking for information that can be used in court. Because ultimately this would change the UCMJ if synthetics are permitted to train with. Also, a list of law-enforcement agency that do use synthetic would be great too. Do any DOD agency's use it that is know? ATF? FBI? DEA?

Thanks for all the help.


P.S. I am looking through old threads also.

(this is the only one so far that I have found regarding synthetic drug training aids)
http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/267964/page/1/nt/2/fpart/1

As for the legal aspects check with Terry Fleck. He has the most comprehensive website relative current canine case law. I've testified numerous times in both state and federal court (I'm in 6th District). I'm not aware of any adverse decisions towards law enforcement due to the use of "synthetic". As you know, I don't use them, but there are a few departments that do.

DFrost