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Think Your Kids Are Using Drugs? You Can Hire A Substance-Sniffing K9 Dog To Search

| March 10, 2016

Ah, the angsty teenage years. This obligatory life stage causes a lot of anxiety in kids and parents alike.

But while teens may be worried about social status and changing hormones, parents have other concerns on their minds: “Is my child safe? Is he hanging with the wrong crowd? Could she be into drugs?

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Screenshot: Wave 3 News via Facebook

If the last question is weighing heavily on a parent’s mind, there’s a K9 service that can help provide answers. Opened in 2014, The Last Chance (TLC) Services offers investigations with trained K9’s who can sniff out drugs, bombs, guns, and the like.

This particular company is based in New Albany, Indiana and has billboards posted in several states, but an article by NY Magazine  says that similar businesses are beginning to pop up.

Billboard
Source: TLC K9 Services

In a story by The Washington Post, TLC owner Michael Davis claims that 9 out of 10 of the houses they’ve searched resulted in drug busts. Ouch.

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Screenshot: Wave 3 News

In an interview with Wave 3 News, Davis says he was inspired to start the company after losing his own child to a drug addict. “[Our services provide] the last chance for a child to get themselves clean before their parents take the next step,” Davis says in the interview. (Watch the full clip below.)

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Screenshot: Wave 3 News

While it’s a little controversial as to whether this poses a huge infringement on a teen’s privacy, for truly concerned parents, it’s an option.

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Note: these are not drugs, but a substance used when training the K9’s to simulate them. Screenshot: Wave 3 News

An article by Scary Mommy suggests that there’s a huge difference between parents investigating kids who may be smoking weed from time to time, and susceptible youngsters living in areas  ravaged by heroin. The article reads:

“In most cases, treating your child like a parolee and raiding their room is not the way to go.”

It goes on to say:

“This kind of service is ideal for parents who think their child is in serious trouble with drugs, that they could possibly die of an overdose or end up in prison. This is not for the parent who thinks their kid might be hiding a little weed to smoke under the bleachers at this Friday’s football game.”

(Read the entire article here.)

What do you think: Is the use of drug-sniffing K9’s to bust teens going too far? Should it only be reserved for special circumstances? Would you ever hire a service like this? Tell us!

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