Sniff Dogs of Summit, New Jersey

25Jan2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Author: Bikash

Sniff Dogs is a confidential drug-detection service. This service was started by Debra Stone, 46, of Summit, and Debbie Kemp, 49, of Hoboken. The idea to start a drug detection service occurred to them after Stone’s 19-year-old son was arrested for possession of marijuana.

”I thought, not me, not my son,” says Stone. When Stone was trying to find a way to keep tabs on her children’s drug use, she found an interesting idea to help other parents. Stone says, “I kept coming across these canine drug dogs, and thought, ‘I want one of these! I want one in my home!’”

The Start

They started with five canines in New Jersey and one in an Ohio branch. In Sniff Dogs, worried parents of teenagers found a solution.

Sniff Dogs offer their services for household, educational and commercial facilities. If any worried parents contact Sniff Dogs, those trained dogs go to such household to find the drugs by sniffing. Likewise, if any educational or commercial facility wants to check whether any drug is available in its premises; dogs from Sniff Dogs will find it out for it.

The Dogs

The dogs of Sniff Dogs are trained well enough to sniff and find drugs hidden in an area. They have a keen sense of smell, which may be hundred times more than any human. The dogs can identify marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, Xanax, and Ecstasy. They can detect odor of drugs from 15 feet away. They can also detect drug residue on clothing which is 48 hours old.

“If they come within 6 inches of the residual odor of a drug, they sit and the handlers mark the spot,” says Stone. “We don’t search for the drug that is up to the parents to do.”

When Sniff Dogs finds drugs, it provides clients with a resource kit, which include drug facts, local intervention contacts, and what to do next.

Cost

Sniff Dogs charges $200 per visit.

“This is meant to be an intervention,” says Kemp. “The drugs today are more addictive and more accessible than they were years ago. From a parent’s perspective, you want to heed that.”

The Future

Every day, approximately 4,700 American youth under the age 18 try marijuana for the first time.

-Pride Survey Results

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s 2005 report, almost half of New Jersey high school seniors have tried marijuana. So, Sniff Dogs will have lots of opportunities and business in the future where every worried parents will try to save their child by detecting whether they are taking drugs or not.

“Every family should have a conversation about drugs, and we have to be aware of what our children are doing in this day and age,” says Amy. Sniff Dogs is for anyone who “just wants to know if the conversation stuck,” Stone says.