SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO DOG IT

Smell Test Has Value In Uncovering Drugs At Schools

Last spring the Supreme Court of Canada heard an appeal about whether
police dogs should be used to find drugs in school. As a parent I find
it hard to believe anyone would think that we should not be using
every tool at our disposal to keep drugs out of schools.

The case started because a high school student was found to have five
bags of marijuana in his possession as well as 10 magic mushrooms. A
police dog found the drugs in his bag as a result of a random search
in a high school in Sarnia.

Let's start with the fact that we are talking about minors who are
supposed to be involved in the process of getting an education. Does
anyone really think that letting drugs into school is going to improve
the learning environment?

The Government of Canada website that deals with the subject points
out that marijuana, "Interferes with your ability to concentrate,
impairs learning, impairs some aspects of memory and can affect a
person's studies and the quality of their work in school or on the
job." Well, if we know this is how these drugs affect learning, what
is the point of allowing them into the schools?

Aside from the whole issue of the effects of drugs on students, we
have to acknowledge that we are still talking about substances that
are illegal in Canada, according to the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act.

There has been a lot of discussion about changing the status of
marijuana in Canada, but its status is still not one of legality,
otherwise the stuff would be available in the local corner store like
cigarettes, which by the way are also illegal for minors to have.

That leaves us with the issue of the actual discovery of the drugs by
a trained dog.

The only objection I have heard about using dogs that makes sense is
the issue of false positives and parent reactions to false positives.

The thing is that the false positives should be seen as a good thing
to parents because it means someone is trying to do something to keep
drugs out of schools. The false positive issue is not that common,
otherwise the police would not be using the dogs in the first place,
either for finding drugs in schools or bombs on airplanes.

Now should it be necessary to have dogs in schools once in a while to
keep the drugs out? Absolutely not, but it is.

My final thought on the issue deals with the issue of probable cause.
In order to search anything or anyone there has to be a reasonable
assumption that evidence of a crime or criminal activity will be
found. Not to be too off-the-cuff, but anyone who lives near a high
school will tell you there are places near schools where students will
get high before classes, so it's not like there is no expectation that
there is evidence in a school.

If the Supreme Court finds that police and school authorities cannot
use dogs to find drugs in schools then someone seriously needs to take
a dog through that Court building, because they must be under the
influence of something if they think that keeping dogs out of schools
and letting drugs into our schools is a good idea.

Oshawa resident Adam Mercer is a high school teacher with a passion
for current events. He is a frequent contributor to this space.