DRUG SWEEPS SHOWING RESULTS

Police Crackdowns and Drug Education Reduce Number of Students Caught
Using Drugs

Constable Jack Vanderpol dips a big hand into a bag full of
confiscated high school drug paraphernalia and pulls out a small black
flashlight.

The mini torch, as long as normal hotdog, has a rectangular hole near
the light bulb for a firebox, its lens is pierced to let in the air
and the battery cap has a perfect drawhole to suck in the pot smoke.

"Whoever made this one sure was enterprising," says Hamilton police's
school resource officer for the lower city.

Flashlight bongs, hollowed-out highlighter pens and wood blocks with
hidden spring-loaded smoking tubes are just some of the paraphernalia
police find high school students using to do drugs during the school
day.

Police say their increased drug sweeps on Hamilton high schools, along
with seminars in class and innovative ways to intervene, is beginning
to yield results because they are finding fewer and fewer students
outside schools smoking up.

"We've started to turn a corner," Vanderpol said yesterday, one year
after police began a comprehensive drug awareness program aimed at
high schools focusing on prevention, enforcement and
intervention.

Last year, high school students were bold about smoking pot near their
schools, police say.

"The activity was so brazen that within the first 10 minutes, we'd
have several people under arrest," Vanderpol said.

That has changed, Vanderpol says, since police launched Operation
Clean Sweep in mid-September last year. The target was teenagers
slipping away on break, lunch or skipping class to smoke up outside
school.

"Now we go to a school and we may not find anybody. If we do, they're
hidden in alleyways or in bushes."

In fall 2004, police targeted 20 schools across lower Hamilton. They
caught 127 students with drugs and seized 71 grams of marijuana.

This year in spring, police launched Operation Spring Thaw, again
concentrating on 20 high schools. They rounded up 120 students and
seized 102 grams of pot.

Sergeant Rich Floriani, in charge of lower Hamilton school resource
officers, said this fall's Operation CDSA (controlled drugs and
substances act) shows a marked drop in drug abuse during the school
day.

This September and October, 83 students were picked up by police, with
80.5 grams of pot seized.

That's a 34 per cent reduction in students caught this fall over last,
Floriani said, and shows students are getting the message police mean
business with their drug sweeps.

Under the new Youth Criminal Justice Act, police have more discretion
and tools to deal with teens caught with drugs.

The majority of students caught with drugs -- in fact 447 of the 637
students picked up since 2003 -- get off with a police caution.

"There are a lot of variables" in letting a student off, Vanderpol
said -- the amount of pot involved, their level of remorse, and they
have to be first time offenders.

Some students get sent to Hamilton's youth drug diversion program, the
first provincial community-based program that diverts young drug users
from the criminal justice system. The program emphasizes education and
counselling.

Of the 637 teens caught during the school day with drugs, 160 were
sent into the youth drug diversion program. Thirteen were charged and
sent to court.

"About 116 have finished going through the drug program and only 10
have reoffended," Floriani said.

School resource officers say 10 to 15 per cent of students given
police cautions have been caught a second time.

School board officials say drug education in the system, beginning in
elementary grades with police and public health officials, is having
an impact on drug use.

Public board superintendent Pam Reinholdt said a pilot project using
recovered drug addicts to coach students has been successful. The life
skills coach project started in Westdale Secondary last year and will
expand to six schools this year.

Police also conduct school sweeps inside schools, at the school
principal's or board's request, with drug-sniffing dogs.

Although the drug dogs are able to detect all kinds of illegal drugs,
only marijuana has been found in schools, Floriani said, and only in
small amounts.