drug n also drag, drogue*. Cp OED drag sb 3 'something that drags ... so as to impede motion'; EDD drug sb¹ 5 'a drag or shoe placed under a wheel to prevent it from turning' So D Co. A device serving as a brake on a sled; TOW²; a dog's clog. Also attrib.
   1910 GRENFELL 91 We were now racing down a series of steep hillsides, so steep that in spite of the 'drugs' or drags, it took all our attention to keep from running over the dogs. P 65-64 The brake to slow a komatic down is the drug. A drug is an endless chain six or seven feet long. When not in use the drug is hung on the nose rope. When applied it slips down over the nose and under the runner. 1966 BEN-DOR 128 A rifle shot sends the 'kamotiks' on their way. Whips and sticks are absent, but the sound of the 'drag,' the shouts and swears, and the skillful use of snowballs are sufficient to get the best performance from the dogs. T 264-66 Over rough country you had to have drugs. I never used two, though, for all I seed people with two—one on each runner. We always had a chain drug—a chain wrapped around the nose o' the sled. An' that was a great help sometimes when the dogs'd want to go where you didn't want 'em to go. You drop that drug an' they'd understand you wanted them to stop. T 417/8-67 She opened up the door an' here is the dog. The dog had the drogue on, you see, as they call it in Labrador: a drug. P 207-67 He tried to slow down the sled with a drag chain. T 409-67 'How d'you ever do it, hold on the steerin' stick one hand?' 'One hand, one hand; put me drugs on inside here on the level, and let her come! Hold on the steerin' stick [of the sled].' M 69-6 To help the ox keep the load from going down a hill too fast, a drug was placed under a runner of the 'fard slide' and the end held by the logger on the load.

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