The presence of sniffer dogs at festivals is making people choose to take drugs earlier, faster or in higher quantities, research has found.

The RMIT research, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, also found the dogs made people choose to conceal their drugs internally, or buy drugs from unfamiliar and potentially dodgy sources inside the gates.

The experience of being strip-searched also caused significant anxiety and distress and short and long-term mental health concerns, author Dr Peta Malins told Hack.

"The sniffer dog operations just aren't deterring people from using drugs or taking drugs into festivals, what they're doing instead is encouraging people to change and adapt their drug-using behaviour," she said.

"People are still using drugs but they're just doing it in more dangerous ways."

Some of those ways include pre-loading drugs ... before they get to the event, or sometimes in a big rush before they see the dogs.

'Some experience very long-term trauma after these strip searches'

The research is based on field observations at music festivals and interviews with 22 young people who've been searched by the drug detection dogs.

"One of the really worrying things to come out of the interviews is just how traumatic the strip searches being increasingly used in the drug dog operations are for people," Dr Malins said.

"People talked about how dehumanising and traumatising those strip searches were, particularly for people who have experienced trauma and sexual assault before in their life - some experience very long-term trauma after these strip searches."

She said the drug dog operations were producing "a great deal" of anxiety and fear, as well as stigma about being searched in front of others.

"It's affecting police community relations in the longer term negatively," Dr Malins said.

"Because the evidence is showing they're not working to deter drug use and causing all these other harms it would be far better for police and government resources to be focused on supporting being safe at events.

"People talked about how they liked it if police were there to help them if they got in trouble and needed support - [they should be] doing that rather than having this puntivate approach trying to catch people with drugs and things like that."