Time for Change Survey and Report

21 Almost two-thirds (63.2%) agreed or strongly agreed that drug detection dogs should be banned from music festivals, events, and in public places, while 15.7% neither agreed or disagreed, and 20.3% disagreed or strongly disagreed. Some people left additional comments on policing at festivals, with one respondent outlining the potential for panic ingestion as a concern: “In my view the cessation of sniffer dogs is one of the most urgent issues. Panic ingestion was implicated in several of the deaths reported on in the NSW coronial inquest into music festival death patrons.” “Police should only be at festivals or public events to prevent violence and ensure physical safety rather than drug prohibition” Unsurprisingly, the communities that are directly targeted and affected by drug dog policing were most likely to agree or strongly agree, with people who use drugs (85.1%), students and/or young people (80.4%), and friends of someone who uses drugs (78.6%) showing the highest levels of support for a drug dog ban. Comparatively, just over half (56.5%) of people who identified as a family member of someone who uses drugs agreed or strongly agreed (see Figure 5), partially accounting for a lower overall percentage of support. Figure 5. Agreeance with banning drug detection dogs at music festivals, events, and in public places We also observed several statistically significant findings across demographics: ● Individuals aged 35 and younger and those aged 36 to 55 showed significantly less support than those aged 56 and older. These results indicate that support for banning drug detection dogs increases with age, with the oldest age group expressing the highest levels of support. ● Support for banning drug detection dogs was also significantly higher among respondents who identified as people who use drugs, friends of people who use drugs, professionals, or as students and/or young people. However, people who identified as a family member of someone who uses drugs expressed significantly lower support than respondents who did not identify this way. Banning drug detection dogs