Carnival Embarkation Drug Searches

[VentureMan_2000]

On 11/14/2023 at 1:54 PM, starstruck05 said:

I highly suggest watching the show "To Catch A Smuggler" on Disney+. All the questions about processes and how they pick people to check and not check and why are answered on that show. It's fascinating and way more complicated than you think. It doesn't feature cruise lines, however, but CBP process is the same anywhere.

We started watching the show "To Catch A Smuggler" on Disney+ yesterday.  It's a National Geographic series -- not a Disney+ specific show.

It's a very interesting show.  I also highly suggest folks watch it... didn't realize to what levels folks go through to smuggle drugs.

For the record, I'm all for a many drug sniffing dogs as they can use, and for using them any time of the day of night on a cruise ship.  Shouldn't be an issue unless you have something to hide.  

[txcruiser1234]

On 11/18/2023 at 10:10 PM, BlerkOne said:

You lost me at needless. Clearly there is illicit drug use on ships and clearly the "needless" searches sometimes bear fruit. Whether or not someone agrees with the laws and/or rules is irrelevant. The cruise contract states they can search your cabin with or without notice, as well.

Apologies for losing you... It is indeed needless, and pointless I'll add:

 

Either the drug dog system works or it does not work effectively. If the dogs do work, people, who are not a part of drug culture, should have no issues and no *need* for the itemized challenge-response bag inspection or the head-to-toe body inspection (where the sun don't shine).

 

If the dogs don't work, rousting 5% (or whatever the actual percentage was) of cruisers is not going to come close to solving whatever level of problem you perceive there to be. All you're doing is casting a wide net, playing a numbers game, where statistically you're catching roughly 1/20th of the problem at embarkation and leaving the other 95% (roughly) to walk on board, while, at the same time, *needlessly* rousting whatever extremely high percentage of folks who have no prohibited items. You could interrogate 100% of the ship at embarkation and really gum up the works for everybody and still not solve your perceived problem as the folks who really want to, will find what they want at a port of call.

 

In either scenario, these interrogations are pointless and needless.

 

Pot reeks. Let the drug dogs do their job in port. Let the dogs do their job on board to track the smell to its source. 100+ days at sea post-covid on Carnival. Exactly one 30 second whiff of pot..

 

[txcruiser1234]

6 hours ago, TerReuv said:

Considering that you know it is a port authority thing, not a Carnival thing, why would you even complain to Carnival? They can't do anything about it. If you really wanted to complain, why not complain to the actual port where it occured instead of wasting time & energy complaining to Carnival?

Well, Carnival asks for feedback specifically about the embarkation experience in it's post cruise surveys... so I gave it.

[BlerkOne]

2 minutes ago, txcruiser1234 said:

Apologies for losing you... It is indeed needless, and pointless I'll add:

 

 

Lost me again. And 150% of statistics are made up. The dogs work as trained - they are not profiling you.

[Elaine5715]

On 11/11/2023 at 8:43 AM, ProgRockCruiser said:

Out of curiosity, what violence on board can you attribute to drug use?  And Are you referring to pot or some other type of drugs?

 

The only violence I see associated with pot is the gangs attempting to control distribution, and they are losing those battles in the states where MJ use is being legalized.

 

As the stereotype goes:

 

With alcohol, fights break out.

 

With MJ, folk-hippy bands break out.

Not in my experience.  Large increase in reported domestic violence here since lab enhanced marijuana has become legal.    Of course, the victims mention it wasn't the first time it happen, just the first time they reported since they had been afraid they would also be arrested when it wasn't legal.

[IndyKid]

Just now, Elaine5715 said:

Not in my experience.  Large increase in reported domestic violence here since lab enhanced marijuana has become legal.    Of course, the victims mention it wasn't the first time it happen, just the first time they reported since they had been afraid they would also be arrested when it wasn't legal.

Sources?

[Elaine5715]

On 11/11/2023 at 4:06 PM, ontheweb said:

In think everyone should take note of how you pointed out how inefficient this process was .When no one is found with anything while at the same time we hear all these complaints, it has to mean this process is not working while at the same time putting some passengers though unnecessary hassles.

These signs turned around several people back to their cars

[ProgRockCruiser]

8 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Not in my experience.  Large increase in reported domestic violence here since lab enhanced marijuana has become legal.    Of course, the victims mention it wasn't the first time it happen, just the first time they reported since they had been afraid they would also be arrested when it wasn't legal.

OK, to me that sounds like a "domestic violence issue" that happens to coincide with pot use, i.e. correlation, not causation.

 

If owning bowling shoes was illegal, and your partner hit you a lot but you both had closets full of bowling shoes, then the shoes aren't causing the violence, they're causing you to not report it.

[Elaine5715]

On 11/14/2023 at 1:34 PM, aborgman said:

 

 

Customs/police/TSA have certain traits they look for - problem is, there is zero criterion validity to most of them and they have no higher success rates than random. They don't work, and just amount to useless profiling.

"A review of 400 studies over 60 years found the chance of spotting deceptive behavior only slightly better than flipping a coin"

"During 2011 and 2012, behavior detection officers referred 8,700 travelers at 49 airports to law enforcement officers, GAO found. The referrals led to 365 arrests"

"“No, they do not exist,” Vrij, author of Detecting Lies and Deceit, “Non-verbal cues to deceit are feigned and unreliable.”

“Over half a century of research shows that liars do not betray themselves by signs of stress or discomfort,” said Hartwig. “In other words, there is no Pinocchio's nose.”

Said no parent, ever.  

[Elaine5715]

On 11/14/2023 at 1:53 PM, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

 

Well, I've never been singled out while going through embarkation.

 

The same can't be said for Disney. Perhaps I have a "certain look", but they've pulled me to the side for extra screening two of of my last three trips to Epcot... LOL

 

Tom

It was something metal ..take all metal out and hold it in front of you as you walk through...phone, charger, eyeglass holders...

[staceyglow]

15 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

These signs turned around several people back to their cars

 

And that's why they aren't finding much.

 

 

[Elaine5715]

11 hours ago, Jay5 said:

Day 3, probably a port day and pot can be purchased in most Caribbean ports.  Usually the drug search only happens at embarkation.

The only port I have had everything searched as I was leaving from a port stop was Jamaica.  They went through everything on everyone

[Elaine5715]

23 minutes ago, IndyKid said:

Sources?

My job

[Elaine5715]

15 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

OK, to me that sounds like a "domestic violence issue" that happens to coincide with pot use, i.e. correlation, not causation.

 

If owning bowling shoes was illegal, and your partner hit you a lot but you both had closets full of bowling shoes, then the shoes aren't causing the violence, they're causing you to not report it.

People lay hands on others sober, drunk and high.  Seems to be a popular myth that instead of punching their partner that smokers just fire up a joint and chill.  They don't.  

[IndyKid]

2 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

People lay hands on others sober, drunk and high.  Seems to be a popular myth that instead of punching their partner that smokers just fire up a joint and chill.  They don't.  

So like ProgRockCruiser said, you say it doesn't matter whether they're sober, drunk or high. Abusers are gonna abuse no matter what. Again, as PRC said, correlation not causation. You say that your work experience tells you that weed turns a docile, friendly person into a violent, stoner sociopath? Me thinks that they were already that way, and they (or their abused partners) wanted to blame the cannabis.

[aborgman]

8 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Said no parent, ever.  

 

That would be news to my 21 and 18 year old children.

[aborgman]

11 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Lost me again. And 150% of statistics are made up. The dogs work as trained - they are not profiling you.

 

If 95% of the people the dogs alert on don't have anything, they aren't trained very well.

[aborgman]

8 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

People lay hands on others sober, drunk and high.  Seems to be a popular myth that instead of punching their partner that smokers just fire up a joint and chill.  They don't.  

 

Yes, they do.

 

...but statistically - they don't do it the same amount.

 

 

[ontheweb]

9 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

These signs turned around several people back to their cars

I am sure that is true, but if passengers are still complaining that the ships reel of the smell of marijuana, a lot of it must still be getting through.

[FSHLOT]

It's kind of funny reading some of these responses. 

Some act like this is something new. People have been dodging them dogs for years. The dogs will never get all the carriers, not even close. Theres always a way if you want to take a chance, and many do take that chance, and are successful. 

[HoosierOops]

We were on the Sunshine out of Charleston in September.  The process was fairly straight forward, as part of the queue, a group of embarking passengers would all drop their carry-ons on this painted line, then step back against the rail.  Officer Sniffy would wander up the line of bags and back down.  If he didn't sit down (alert), the group was told to pick up their bags and enjoy their vacation, then the next group filed through.  It was maybe 20ppl per group as you went through the security line.  I think it was before the metal detectors, too, but I am not certain.  I think of the 3 or 4 groups I could see while in the queue, only a few individual bags got pulled.  I didn't really feel that it impeded our embarkation.  Being a dog person, I really wanted to give Officer Sniffy some lovins because it was obvious he's a good boy, but I knew he was working and therefore not allowed.

 

Only smelled weed once on the cruise, and that was when we passed through the smoking area on deck 10 while going to check out the waterpark and sports area.

 

The bigger impedance was immediately after we passed through the metal detectors and were maybe 20ft away, someone had an "ALL STOP" alert from the screener.  So, we played statue for about 10 minutes.  Luckily, we happened to be standing next to one of the security personnel when it happened, so we chatted with him and learned what the "ALL STOP" meant.

[aborgman]

46 minutes ago, FSHLOT said:

It's kind of funny reading some of these responses. 

Some act like this is something new. People have been dodging them dogs for years. The dogs will never get all the carriers, not even close. Theres always a way if you want to take a chance, and many do take that chance, and are successful. 

 

 

This is about false positives, not false negatives.

 

[FSHLOT]

35 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

 

This is about false positives, not false negatives.

 

Huh? I thought it was about drug sniffing dogs at embarking.  My bad!!!

[ledges1]

1 minute ago, FSHLOT said:

Huh? I thought it was about drug sniffing dogs at embarking.  My bad!!!

This has left the original post long ago. We have discussed government  conspiracy theories, profiling, etc…. Time for this post to be closed. 

[ProgRockCruiser]

39 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

 

This is about false positives, not false negatives.

 

 

1 minute ago, FSHLOT said:

Huh? I thought it was about drug sniffing dogs at embarking.  My bad!!!

In general, it is very difficult to arrange any reasonably complex detection/test system to not have both false positives and false negatives.  So I think it is fair to discuss the merits of whether the system is competent it what it is attempting to do.

 

And the sneaking aboard of drugs or other contraband also has the added twist that the person attempting it knows the system is trying to detect it, and will therefore attempt to increase the likelihood of a false negative.

 

However, the one amusing part about pot smokers in particular is that it doesn't matter how well they hide the pot, the rest of their personage exhibits the odor anyway (because like cigarette smoke it just gets into everything), and they'll get a hit from the dogs as a result.  

 

So unless you are using luggage you've careful hermetically sealed and stored in the attic or basement and laundered absolutely everything you are wearing/packed and also cleaned up your vehicle that you drove to the port, the dog might still smell it on you.