(Not that you would, but) Don't try to sneak marijuana into Italy via aiports
 

On our last trip to Italy, our son ended up borrowing a backplack from a friend of a friend.

We arrived at Pisa Airport, and as soon as we cleared customs, two drug-sniffing dogs jumped on my son's back and starting barking like crazy.

The cops were reasonably courteous but they marched us into a room and searched everything, telling us we were suspected of carrying marijuana (I speak some Italian).

The search turned up nothing and they sent us on our way, so we figure the backpack had some residue in it that attracted the dogs.

If they're on to residue like that, imagine what would happen if someone was carrying a real stash.

Taking any sort of illegal drugs across any boder is nothing less than gross stupidity. All governments are looking for the stuff - often successfully - and other legal systems are much different than our own in terms of the accused's rights or lack thereof.

And not that I know your son - but - borrowed backpack??? Really???

Darn, NYtraveler beat me to it! I think we can all agree and safely say taking illegal drugs thru any international airport is probably not a brilliant idea (not specific to the country of the type of substance).

This reminds me of another thread where someone bought a suitcase second hand and had the same results.
I guess it's prudent to know where your luggage has been - or what it's been doing.

As to my son's behavior and responsibility, I'll plead the 5th. He's over 21 and responsible for himself. However, indeed, the bacpack was borrowed -- the night before we left he had to rush out to get it from a friend. My concern at the time of the incident was that there was something left in one of the compartments by the owner. Fortunately, there wasn't.

I mention this story because some people seem to think that Europe has a laid-back attitude about drugs -- I dunno, maybe it has something to do with legal weed in Holland. But be assured that it's no joke in Italy, for instance.

Strange that they're so tough on pot as i believe simple possession of a small amount in Italy has been decriminalized - i may be wrong.

<i>I know! We'll smoke the backplack - I mean bacpack - I mean - aw, the hell with it.</i>

A dog at Miami once sniffed my carryon and a guard came to inspect. He asked me if I had any fruits or vegetables and I said no. The dog seemed to indicate otherwise and they searched my bag. Finally I told him that morning I did have an apple in the bag which I ate at the airport in Paris. He let me go. Apparently the dog could still smell the apple in my carryon. God those dogs are good. I've never figured out how the dog told him it was fruits or vegetables though instead of drugs. Do they have some sort of signals the dogs give?

This Beagle corps thing also happened to me at U.S. Customs - i had a carrot in my day pack and i was actually eating it waiting for my bags since i didn't want to take it thru Customs and a beagle comes up, sniffs my bag and plops his/her head on the bag and wouldn't move until the agent came and asked if i had any fruits or veggies in it - i explained no anymore but he still wrote me up and i had to have all my bags go thru some machine that could sniff out any foodstuffs.
Appaarently dogs are not trained to do both drugs and veggies even though marijuana is a plant and the beagles are often food sleuths i read in our local fish wrap talking about the airport dogs and how many people they bust carrying salamis, etc. back from Italy!

On occasion i've also seen dogs come on trains entering Italy from Switzerland, which has had loose drug laws - until Sep 2004 Switzerland actually had cannabis shops selling pot over the counter quite legally - they were shuttered though i heard in Sep 2004.

I found the OP's story entirely believable, as the same thing happened to my daughter at Auckland and yes, it was a borrowed backpack. As she had to join a long and ever-growing line of backpackers waiting to be checked out by the (good-humoured) customs officers the problem is obviously a common one. I've been told that a cycle or two in a washing machine should fix the problem, but I'm not in a position to guarantee this.

A GOOD backpack is an expensive item (assuming we're talking a 50 litre cargo luggage one rather than a day bag). It's no big surprise that a 21 year old might choose to borrow one from a friend rather than buy a new one.

No signal with the dogs. Different dogs are trained for different things. Maybe there was some issue about people taking drugs in fruits or vegetables at that time, and they had trained dogs for smelling fruits :)

A cat loving coworker and her husband got 'Beagled' flying into Seattle from Victoria. A couple of public servants in their 50s. It became a problem because they missed their connection.

There, I verbed a noun, or something like that.

A friend of mine came back from a trip to Jordan and a dog sniffed her and got very excited.
The handler told her that the dog would have barked if she'd had drugs and asked where she had been to pick up an interesting smell.
She said that just before getting the plane, she'd had a camel ride.
It seems that the dog had never smelled camel before.

Residue won't cause any problems - i read an account of the Italian drug inspectors where one guy got found with a few marihuana cigarettes and they said he could go because he had only a small amount for personal possession but those over the limit, whatever that may be, would be prosecuted.
US Customs dogs also sniffs for weapons and cash.
When boarding a flight for London recently, after we had gone down the gangway for the plane, two agents and dogs were sniffing people at random searching for cash in excess of the $10,000 you legally can take out of the country - they had folks trapped in the gangway and i guess could do the same for drugs, weapons, etc.

Might want to post this on the Lonely Planet sight, it may do a little more good over there...lol.

Residue can cause a problem. A few years ago, there was a notorious case where a couple crossing the border from British Columbia to Washington had their car seized, because there was either a full or half crushed marijuana seed in the back seat ashtray. They denied using pot in the car, and they had purchased the car used. I don't know the ultimate resolution.

I've also read there can be drug-sniffing dogs on trains in Europe, particularly going from a lax zone (e.g. the Netherlands) to a stricter zone.

And it hardly bears mentioning, but I've read on the more youthful forums of people who thought that sticking pot in a coffee can was a wise plan, because the coffee smell would overwhelm the pot. Not a good idea.

Just to add another story, someone I know took a shuttle bus from Vancouver to Seattle some years ago. One young man on the bus was held up for a very long time (also holding up the rest of the bus passengers), precisely because his backpack attracted the attention of drug-sniffing dogs. He was finally allowed in, but I don't know if he would be today.